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 a ground covered in ash in a circular form some 100 meters wide.
He gave himself a quick once-over to look 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 watch, he didn't even realize he had held his breath. He pulled himself up while tensing his thigh muscles and taking a cautious look around. He was able to walk beyond the burnt trees and shrubs and into the actual woodland because of his intensive plumber training in endurance and handling pain.
In his unusual style of living, which involves 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 just wanted to be left alone. However, something about this woodland made the hairs on the back of his neck stand up and sent a shiver down his spine.
QUIET! For a forest in the middle of the night, it was too silent. He didn't pay attention in science class, but even he had picked up some tree species only common to earth, most of them at least in his many years of travel, okay, not so many years, but at least he had a couple years ahead of Kevin in the game. Not even the smooth rustling of leaves fighting against the cool night breeze could be heard, and the crickets weren't working tonight apparently.
He abruptly came to a stop as if electrified when he thought about Kevin.
GWEN!!! He gasped as his concerned eyes looked around, as if they would suddenly materialize. Despite the obscurity, tac, he heard a twig snap.
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 those ideas left his head, a seemingly enormous tree's exposed 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 carried away by digging his fingers into the earth with all of his effort, but he was not able to do so because what was dragging him along the forest floor and upwards was much stronger than him. He was swinging about and hanging by his ankles when he abruptly snapped out of his shock and saw two more roots springing through the air to hold his flailing arms in place.
When the entire area was enveloped in a dazzling green light, the roots were only a few inches from his fingertips.
After the incident in the swamp that claimed Alec Holland's life, a new chapter began when the green decided he was worthy of having their vast power and knowledge of the green and having him defend them against anything causing too much unnatural damage to them.
Swampthing was on his daily patrol of the world when he heard the cries of the green on the banks of the River Metropolis, to which he immediately responded. He was then finishing up destroying the boat vessel when he felt fear and pain.
His huge form melded with the ground and became one with it as 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 disturbances. Had he done this in the air, a sonic boom would have been heard.
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, some of which were both figuratively and literally among the harshest greens he had the pleasure of knowing.
As a result of adaptation to wildfires, these trees have grown to be so resilient that the fires only burn 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 only black ash as the only sign of plant life.
His shock was rapidly replaced by wrath, which caused him to search the forest for the perpetrators. He soon detected a variety of wild animals and insects approaching the clearing using his years of experience and the greens' knowledge of all things natural to determine whether what they also sensed was dangerous, such as the wildfires that rarely occur there. It was easy for him to detect a figure walking on two feet right away because not many animals could do it 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 25, with brown hair that was curly and bright blue eyes that stood out against the surrounding white. Every time he moved, his well-defined muscles could be seen rippling through his shirt and jacket. He had a large watch on his left hand; it was the largest watch he had ever seen, especially on a young man. At a time when technology was rapidly advancing and packaging was becoming more and more portable, moving from telephone booths and desktop computers to handheld smart phones and laptops, he had no doubt that the watch was odd, especially since it also 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 appeared to suddenly stop and furiously start scanning his surroundings as if expecting something to emerge. Realizing his choice had already been decided, Swampthing joined forces with the nearby tree and swiftly pointed two of its roots at the man's ankles.
Since the intruder had no chance against someone who could compete with Superman in terms of strength (Swampthing 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 and dragged him along the ground to the air when he proved to have some form of advanced human strength.
Without skipping a beat, he fired two more at him, this time aiming for his hands to hold him down for punishment on the green.
The entire region was suddenly consumed 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 swiftly recovering, he turned to where the man was, but he wasn't there. 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 sign in the middle that was lighting green. They were the same height, but Swampthing was more muscular and menacing, so he emerged from the ground.
Ben's warrior and plumber instincts kicked in as 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).
After burning the roots tying his ankles to the ground, Swampfire took his position. He took a moment to tune into nature, and that's when he felt it—the intense agony of the nearby plant life, which didn't appreciate the energy bubble he exited and landed in.
His intelligence, which has been rapidly rising since he unlocked the master control, suggested that perhaps the forest was attacking him as a result of that, but he couldn't really blame what was assaulting him because if he were in his position, he would have done the same, if not worse.
Something was rising from the ground when he heard it. On a very enormous, buff humanoid plant-like form with some small flowers and thorns and large veiny vines running all over his body, he was met by a pair of dazzling yellow eyes. Swampfire's first thought was of an earthly sentient plant thing. There was a dreadful quiet throughout the stare down.
Swampthing 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..." Swampfire ducked missing a flying fist that was extending from Alec seemingly angered by what he had said.
Alec 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 he was.
Swampfire replied by extending his own hand and then going on to wrap it around Swampthing while swaying his own to turn against him after dodging the punch and using his plumber training.
Swampthing 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.
Swampthing 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 an attempt.
"What are you doing here!?" Swampthing questioned in a growl that contained a tinge of caution.
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 and turning around to walk away as if hearing someone whisper and advice him about Swampfire, before giving 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 identify 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 at the clearing he had left behind after shaking his head and banishing those thoughts from his head. Disappointed that he hadn't even thought of mending the harm that he had definitely inflicted. He put his hand on the ground, tapped into his body manna, and then channelled all that natural energy to the clearing where shrubs, flowers, and towering, massive trees grew to the size of the others surrounding them.
Satisfied of the work he'd done and sensing a calmness returning to the surrounding, he turned and continued on his way. He had long since already mapped out a way out of the forest although it would take a long time.
"TRIXX contact Gwen and Kevin" spoke to his 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 when Azmuth activated the master control on it. 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, to assist in maintaining the DNA samples stored electronically in the databases in the Omnitrix and also facilitate and calculate the correct calculations during Ben's alien transformations as well as manage the numerous duties and protocols in handling the Omnitrix as a whole that even Ben with the master control and the Omnitrix's experience could not handle.
Azmuth had also been a little taken aback by the development of Trixx, as Ben eventually came to name her, which demonstrated just how much evolution even a sophisticated quantum computer can go through given the necessary computing power and the Omnitrix's self-sufficient power supply. The name and feminine version of Ben's voice were inspired by the Omnitrix's role as the centre of 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 thanks to technological improvements brought about by Azmuth's creation of a race of megamorphs that can 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 cellphone numbers do not exist" came the computerized version of Trixx.
"Okay let's get out of this place first then we can find them." He said knowing that the thick tree canopy and the harsh terrain are probably responsible for Trixx not getting a lock on his cousin and best friend.
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 bark 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 were indicating was there.
"Trixx, what information can you provide regarding the creature we just came across out there?"
Since the primary purpose of the Omnitrix is to gather, record, analyse, and secure alien species so that when a specie becomes extinct it can be revived, he questioned knowing that she is always too curious about life matter and DNA, 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 his body had been covered with a bio-restorative substance, leading researchers 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 the human awareness and memories. The freshly awakened plant life emerged from the bog in what appeared to be a human shape."
Ben still in Swampfire form 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 his DNA like the other newer aliens the Omnitrix scanned before and when it didn't he was worried the Omnitrix 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 goods made of flour, sugar and oil of some sort. 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 us? Don't you have like protocols put in place for those sorts of things!?"
"Usually I do but somehow the young human 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 little footage the watch picks 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 and they were fine because the other option would be...no he couldn't think about that now. Knowing how wormholes and Galvan intelligence works he's probably in some other universe or an alternate one since the creature didn't recognize him.
Groaning in annoyance 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 have a heavy processing power like hers which continues to evolve constantly expanding the more alien DNAs are added to her database.
"Smart ass," Swampfire grumbled but chuckled lightly at her attempt of 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 Swampthing 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 had stood before him and the green in him whispered that he was not a threat to him which made him turn and leave without any further confrontation.
He was impressed by the display of power from the creature when he restored the part of the forest in which he scorched when he landed and was also impressed by the device on his chest that seemed to be one of those AI programs many corporations use to make their operations more efficient. He came across them in the Congo forest in Africa being used to operate machines remotely since the forest was too harsh for a long stay to 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 injuries 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 while 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 red 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 agitated. He allowed the two people 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 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 but right now 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 save for the occasional patrol details. 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 him from seeing how embarrassed he was becoming.
"JARVIS! Connect to the Stark satellites and triangulate our location." A second later Jarvis 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 don't know Sir." He blinked inside the suit where Jarvis was displaying 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 brief information Jarvis acquired from the Internet, was a company called WAYNE Inc. And appears to be another billionaire by the name of Lex Luther, after Jarvis finally studied the small details that weren't hard to hack owing to their lax security system.
He started panicking, "Uh! Cap! We are in Gotham."
"What's a Gotham?" Cap asked out in desperation 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.
Batman was in the bat cave keeping an eye on his enormous crime screen/supercomputer, which was bigger than the combined supercomputers of the Pentagon and NSA. It intercepted and recorded all 911 and emergency line calls before processing the information from numerous sources in Gotham and around the globe through an algorithm that pinpoints specific words that cause the masked vigilante to react in a particular way.
Since he believed that his place 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 where the situation was critical. The watchtower's own supercomputer was connected to the batcave. To share the same protocols in an emergency or if one machine had been compromised or infected with malware, the systems were sort of connected.
The cave's speaker system blared warning sounds as if it were under a nuclear attack as another section focused on one satellite in space to the location where the threat seemed to originate first. The screen then began to beep and flash a giant red danger alert. The first image was of the entire earth, followed by a view of the clouds, before figures, or structures, began to appear. When the camera zeroed in on a large body of water, it surprised him by being in the port of Gotham, his home city. When his eyes focused on the energy values shown on the screen, they grew more 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 intrigued and fascinated 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 phoned it in despite his instincts prompting him to bring the others 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 want you, Shazam, Superman, Wonderwoman, Flash, J'onn, Cyborg 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 supercomputer to see what's up.
He had heard the changeover while grabbing a bite to eat in the hallway, but he had skipped the meal to see what had Batman so alarmed.
"As if!" Hal replied in turn. As the information on the screen caused his eyes to widen, Hal observed him take off to 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 transported to Batman's location.
The minute he 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 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 mentioning 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 super vision to see ahead while nearing Gotham, he saw Batman talking to a group of criminals wearing all kinds of weird costumes yet it wasn't even Halloween.
One was wearing a toy mechanical suit that was color themed red and Gold, one was wearing a back pack full of arrows and carrying a bow, another in a big green muscles body suit, another had an armoured attire covering his body with what looks like some ancient warrior armour overhead carrying a hammer (like those Greek gods) he thought, one was wearing a tight fitting combat suit that actuated her lovely curves which she knew she had judging by the way she let her cleavage show, one was wearing a costume consisting of bright American colours and carrying a shield in the same colouring and one was a woman wearing some form of combat cloths and her hands glowing red (Clark assumes must be these modern lighting effects, since moving here he never bought decorations for Christmas tree always using the same ones so he kind of out of date with all things sparkly).
He closed in on them.
After contacting the watchtower batman took the bat mobile to the port driving at dangerous speeds but it being a more modernized and combat ready 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 took off.
After surveying the entire port and finding a few clowns passed out on the port he decided to watch the one that was up already while still surveying for the source of the energy readings.
He wore an all American attire literally to the shield, it made him cringe at the many colors on one's body This one seems to be scanning the area by sight in a fashion which means ex Special Forces but probably went nuts due to P.T.S.D.
The HUD in Batman's suit managed to zoom to his other accomplices. The one in some kind of red and gold amour mechanical suit awoke with a gasp and started looking around seemingly calming down a little when he saw the America guy.
"Is this what has become of Gotham nowadays? A place for rich kids to do what they want?" He wondered out loud. His rich kid theory was based on the very expensive real like mechanical amour one kid was wearing. Even had thrusters that worked on the hands. He made a mental note to subtly ask him where he bought it and acquire it under the Wayne Inc. R&D department.
The two sleeping on the big green guy were still asleep even though the big guy was up but seemingly deciding to let them sleep. He admired their loyalty and friendship checking up on each other like that even when drunk off their minds.
The last one was weird, she was encased in a cocoon of red which batman concluded was very expensive lighting effects which made the girl sleeping there look like she's floating. Another mental note to acquire that company.
Batman was about to call of the backup and blame the whole thing on a computer glitch originating from the watchtower, because come on, the bat cave was never wrong.
He pulled out his tablet connected to the cave and pressed a few keys connecting to the watchtower. The screen froze for a second then connecting... was written meaning no one was currently at the supercomputer. That was not what disturbed him, the screen freezing for a second was not to be taken lightly especially it being connected to powerful processors like theirs. It could only mean one of two things: one, he/the watchtower was hacked or Hal, Barry and Oliver (green arrow) left porn on run again on the supercomputer.
The second one was unlikely since he installed a patch to block all unwanted and unprofessional material in the watchtowers system and he could bet his whole fortune that they couldn't have hacked it or found someone else to do it because on the whole planet only Cyborg surpasses his technical and mechanical skills since he is part Apokalyptic technology and that he uses quantum computing thus surpassing everytech on earth. He quickly did a deep diagnostics of the important sections and data centres in the watchtower.
LEVEL 5 BREACH!!! Flashed momentarily then disappeared. It appeared the firewalls blocked out most of the attack and they just got random information like who owns the satellites. Upon closer inspection he realized all Wayne satellites were 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 and platforms it tried to cover its 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 even Batman was experiencing it now. He was beyond furious this hacker managed to hack all his satellites at once as if his firewalls were a joke. He never let Cyborg adjust the code too much incase his system got corrupted under Apocalypse influence. The same firewalls NSA, Pentagon and every super power nation always attempted to breach but failed to get passed the first one.
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 and didn't want to hack the whole thing because he would have done it should he wished it and a lot of information, weapon projects at Wayne inc and Watchtower information would have been compromised. He surmised either the hacker was making himself known that he can 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 tracing programs that subtly attached to the hackers program in case they managed to breach it.
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 looking at the other armor clad one expectantly. He adjusted the antennas on his bat ears to listen in on them while 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 never was like that. He heard the one called Cap asking what is a Gotham and him loving everything stealthy, decided to answer them and scare the alcohol out of their system.
"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 voice, each of them took a fighting stance. Cap held the shield ready to throw at him while the armoured one seemed to be charging up his hand blasters, the one who looked like an archer pointed an arrow right at him while the woman next to him pointed a gun at him and the big guy just growled (batman saw that was no big green costume) the other woman hands started glowing red again while she easily manipulated them.
"Shit!" Was all he said before the stare down continued.
Tony looked at the voice and his sensors picked up a human figure dressed in some form of bat costume which was heavily armoured 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 gets angry and says or does something stupid.
"We mean you no harm, we're 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 him. 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 appears 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 you in trouble. Cap began jogging to meet him in the middle since he landed quiet a distance away which is understandable given the fact that they don't know each other.
Batman watched Steve start to jog towards him reaching out in the back of his pants for what he assumed was Identification papers, which was 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 and his hand which was already tapping his earpiece and shouting something while looking for the source of the sound. Due to the super soldier serum in Steve his reflexes 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 and looked up trying to locate and attempt to either deflect it into the water with his indestructible shield or jump in the water to evade it knowing the others would survive too. Looking to his left he saw a pair of red eyes glowing coming at him too fast to react in time even for his enhanced reflexes, gritting his teeth 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 his hammer 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.
Superman saw what was happening using his super vision. He saw batman grapple down to ground level and face off with the group of clowns alone and started smiling at how he will enjoy watching batman take care of this...the one wearing all American stepped forward while the others took well precisioned 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 which he thought could only be a gun or knife considering it was at night. With batman outnumbered he didn't stand a chance, he increased his speed which split sound and air into two again creating a large BOOOM! While reaching the port and heading towards Batman's offender.
He was getting ready to attack him and yank him away from Batman when a hard, precise, and excruciatingly painful blow to his forearm sent him flying in the opposite direction. Only when fighting Darkseid and Bizzaro had he ever experienced a hit like that; The Professor's Android was also a strong candidate. He was launched into the air and crashed into a stack of containers, which later caught fire and caused a moderate explosion.
"What is that hammer made of?" Wondered Superman aloud while looking at it a few meters away from him. Before contemplating picking it up, it suddenly floated in air and took off through the hole they made on the building which they had apparently ended up in. Wasting no more time he took off in the direction the hammer flew to.
Thor had been alert and on warrior mode when Cap went to speak to the human dressed in what looks 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 and all.
Not sensing Asgard really worried him and hoped nothing had befallen his home world not that his father or the many capable warriors couldn't handle things without him there, 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 and him return and check up on his people. Boom! It was faint but he heard it and started looking around. His Asgardian physiology and him being the god of thunder made it possible for him to have heightened senses and to be so powerful he came second to the All Father himself KING ODIN so it made sense he heard it while the others didn't . He had to mentally retract his statement when he saw that Hulk heard it too and was looking around suddenly getting angry for nothing.
When Thor saw Cap start a small jog to the man to hand him the ID 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 fast as he could to intercept the projectile heading to 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, acquiring every combat skill there was 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 him 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 the 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 but more or less didn't hurt but was tackled past some containers colliding with them while exchanging blows. Then everything went to shit after that.
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 here 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 and 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 and gritting his teeth Batman didn't even attempt calling off his team now because it was simply too late and what was going to happen next was completely unavoidable. Just by his prediction being spot on as always Shazam was the first to attack Thor with lightning and tackled him into containers behind him. 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 saw the people he so called 'Rich kids' were capable of handling themselves very well.
General point of view.
As soon as the first punch was thrown by Shazam towards Thor then everything happened too fast almost as if in slow motion. Iron man blasted green lantern out of the sky with his gauntlet blasters who then crashed into the water. Green arrow fired an arrow at Black widow who before even deciding to dodge it was shot out of the air by another arrow. Looking towards Hawkeye he barely dodged an arrow that Hawkeye shot 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 who he was at a stalemate with but before she could reach she was knocked by a force equaling a rampaging hulk which threw her against a container where she fell unconscious from the force of the hit since she wasn't exactly durable like the others except Hawkeye of course.
Diana bumped into the woman in a combat suit running to help her comrade fight Green arrow. She was knocked unconscious from the impact alone making Diana cringe at the thought of knocking a human with that much force and flew towards her hoping she was still alive. Her legs were grabbed by an angry Hulk taking her by surprise then slammed into the ground over and over again each hit disorienting her further never having been manhandled like this before.
Hulk who 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 saw a woman dressed in what looked like a swim suit bump into her making her unconscious. Furious, he leaped to her mid-air grabbing her legs then slamming her repeatedly in the breaking ground like Loki with each hit being stronger than the one before. Just then superman slammed into Hulks back sending them both flying away while Diana was dropped to the ground unceremoniously where she started getting up getting her bearings on.
"Hera! That beast is strong!" She said looking towards the loud bangs that were Superman's and the beasts trading blows.
She looked towards the rest of the battle and saw J'onn fighting the woman who had a red aura around her, flash was speeding through the battle field landing precise hits to the enemies while securing the occasional night guard coming to inspect, batman was fighting the guy in the armour, green lantern was helping Shazam take down the man with the hammer. Diana had to agree with her eyes that he wasn't that bad to look at and even giving Superman a run for his money. His muscular arm which tightened with every grip to his hammer, his chiselled chest hidden under that armour and also had a long brown way gold hair flowing to his back and for a moment she thought about her brothers and cousins and also the myth of Thor the god of thunder which is among the tales told by the gods. She shook her head from those thoughts and dove into battle with a war cry.