A/N: I give you my favourite chapter I have written thus far – inside, it includes semi-awkward moments, several random fights between a mash-mix of our favourite heroes, Thor cuteness (and yes, I do find him very, very cute), Nick Fury, a frazzled Flash, some Iron Man snark, and, not one, but two WonderBats moments right after the other.

Like I said, I like it… I like it a lot :) But, in any case, enjoy…

Disclaimer: Let's see… on this list of awesome things I own: I have A) a bobble-head of Gandalf the Grey and B) one sterling white PS3, I do not however, and will probably ever, own any of these characters.

Those Shooting Stars

Four
Collision

"Life is so complete that even when we are knocked on our backs, we have the best view of the stars."
– Laura Teresa Marquez

It took exactly two and a half minutes and Captain America shaking him by the shoulder before Tony could re-hinge his jaw and his brain to catch up with what exactly he had just witnessed.

But, more importantly (and he still had a little trouble accepting this part) did they seriously just get snubbed by a dude in a red cape, a swim-suit model who could fly, and some lunatic wearing a bat-suit?

What the hell…?

"Tony?" he heard Steve say for what must have been the fourth time.

Tony straightened up. "Yeah, I'm with you, Cap', just… give me a second…" pausing for a while, he turned to the rest. "…So… can anybody tell me what just happened?"

"To be honest, I have no idea," Steve admitted with a frown as he walked over and picked up his shield as it lay on the nearby sidewalk.

Tony nodded. "Okay… just so we're on the same page. Next question – what do we do now?" he said before he noticed the look on Thor's face. "And what are you smiling about?"

To Tony and Steve's utter bewilderment (the Hulk didn't care), the Asgardian had a toothy grin on his face and what looked like stars in his eyes.

Thor then surprised them even more by barking out a laugh. "Nothing at all, but to answer your question, Iron Man, I say we follow after Lady Diana and see for ourselves."

Steve blinked while Tony glared at him from behind his mask.

"I'm sorry – Lady Diana?" Tony repeated.

Then, more surprisingly, "I agree."

Tony's head snapped to the Hulk who had spoken up for the first time. "What?"

Hulk merely shrugged. "I don't see you coming up with anything better, Tin-Man." he then cracked his knuckles threateningly and smirked. "And if I can get a rematch with that swirly-haired punk out of it, I'm in."

Tony was actually speechless – that was one of the longer things he'd ever heard the Hulk say, and to be honest, he wasn't exactly sure how to respond to any of it.

Thor, however, surprisingly did. "Then it's settled," he said enthusiastically, swinging his hammer, "Come, my friends, we cannot let them start without us." And, with that, he flew away.

"Is it me, or is he way too excited about this…?" Tony asked awkwardly before following afterwards.

Steve could only sigh until a very important fact dawned on him.

"Shoot…" he muttered under his breath, "How are we going to follow after them?" Last time he checked, neither he nor the Hulk could fly.

Shaking his head, he reached for the comm. in his cowl. Suddenly, however, with a somewhat breathless 'urk', Steve was all too aware of his feet suddenly leaving the ground and half of the air inexplicably leaving his lungs. When he looked, he saw that the Hulk suddenly had one arm around his waist, and none too gently at that.

Before he could open his mouth, the Hulk made as if to jump and Steve realized what he was about to do. His eyes widened significantly. "Hulk, no. I'll call Jarvis – maybe he can get a helicopter or something to pick us up." He tried to reason, anything to get out of what he was sure was about to happen.

"No time." The green giant said in a way which could only mean the discussion was over and done with.

Steve didn't even have time to think about it as there was a sudden, almost violent whooshing sound and the next thing he knew, they were airborne.

Meanwhile…

The large metal door never stood any chance. There was a thump first, then a louder thump followed by the makings of a dent – the dent slowly became larger and larger as the thumping increased in volume until, finally, it simply gave in and keeled over with a mace firmly indented within it.

Bright green light then spilled in from the corridor followed by the sound of gunfire as two figures appeared on the threshold.

With a sudden surge, when the gun men in the blue uniforms stopped momentarily to reload, Green Lantern dropped the shield that protected them from the hail of bullets and created a construct resembling a hand and smashed them against the wall, successfully knocking them out.

When he looked over his shoulder, John saw Hawkgirl pick up her mace before looking around. "You'd think they'd label the doors in this flying tin can," she muttered, walking deeper inside.

Currently, they were standing in what looked like a large, open-spaced lab of some kind with computers and monitors all over the place and what looked like a glass window in the back of the room with a console.

At first, it appeared that they were the only ones there until John caught sight of a pair of nearby monitors. "Shayera," he said sharply.

Shayera was already a step ahead of him and flew over to the other side of the room towards the glass pane. There was a slight intake of breath when she peered inside. "I found him!" she said over her shoulder.

John went to her side, and sure enough, sitting in the middle of a stark small white cell was the Flash, his arms cradling his legs to his chest, looking more than just a little freaked-out and twitching occasionally.

Shayera then started knocking on the glass loudly. "Wally!" she shouted.

He was in his happy place, he was in his happy place, he kept chanting to himself, visualizing he was somewhere else – a wide-open field, a road that stretched on forever, his favourite fast-food joint in Central, anywhere really that wasn't where he was right now.

Okay, seriously, he was starting to freak out, he wasn't exactly claustrophobic, but the walls… the walls were creeping up on him, man! They were everywhere – there was nowhere he could look without seeing a white wall, standing there, mocking him.

"Wally!"

What the…? Looking around, he then heard thumping coming from the wall to his right, and a voice calling out to him. It was feint at first, muffled, but it sounded familiar, almost like-

"Wally, can you hear us?"

He was on his feet in a millisecond, careful not to touch the wall he heard the voice coming from, "Shay!"

Shayera let out a sigh of relief when she heard him over the monitors.

John fiddled around with the console until he found the intercom. Finding a microphone, Shayera spoke into it. "It's me, Wally."

The speedster visibly relaxed and laughed. "Thank goodness, I thought I was going crazy – where are you? Or, you know what, never mind that, where the heck are we?"

"When we bust you out of there, we'll tell you everything." She said.

"Is John with you?" he asked hopefully, but slightly apprehensively almost like he wasn't sure whether to ask of not.

"Sure am, kid," John said, leaning over so he could speak into the microphone. "Hold tight, we'll get you out of there in no time."

Shayera seemed ready to take her mace to the window until John stopped her and pointed at a door next to the console.

She only looked mildly disappointed, but, before either of them could say or do anything, just as they reached the door, something sped past her wings ears and an arrow planted itself in the space next to her head.

"I wouldn't go there if I were you," a voice commented from behind.

Turning around, both of them saw a man in a purple suite pointing a bow and arrow at them.

Shayera glared at him. "You missed." She said, deadpan.

The man cocked an eyebrow as his lips quirked smugly. "Did I?"

The next moment, the end of the arrow suddenly erupted and began emitting smoke. Caught off guard, before Shayera could react, John raised a shield around them just in time as a redheaded woman in a blackish-purple cat-suit was about to land a kick to the Thanagarian's backside.

When the woman backed away, temporarily hidden by the smoke, John expanded the shield, pushing the smoke screen back enough so that they could see the woman joining the man's side, both looking like they were getting ready to attack at any given opportunity.

"You're trespassing on government property," the woman stated, glaring at them pointedly as she drew a gun. "Remain where you are. You have thirty seconds to lower your weapons and turn yourselves in before we use any force necessary to incapacitate you."

"Yeah, well you got about ten seconds to let our friend out of his cell before I start smacking both of you around this room," Shayera retaliated.

"Hawkgirl," John said sharply before slowly lowering his shield and turned to look at the woman. "Look, this doesn't need to get out of hand any more than it already has."

However, when John tried to take a step towards them, he barely had enough time to raise another shield before another arrow struck against it, aimed at his head.

Wally almost started twitching involuntarily again when he didn't hear anything after John's reply.

"Hello?" he shouted, getting frustrated. "GL, Shay! Are you guys still out there?"

He nearly jumped out of his skin when he heard gunshots ringing out.

The whites of his cowl widened and, without thinking about it first, he darted towards the wall, fully intended to pound against it only to have the wall's energy barrier put him on his back.

Hitching himself up on his elbows, he then rubbed his head and grimaced.

"Why do I even try…?"

Elsewhere…

They had certainly made an entrance, Superman mused as he floated around the gigantic metal craft Green Lantern had spoken about – smoke poured from the hole in the side of the ship, and he could hear the alarms blaring on the inside.

He waited a minute for Wonder Woman and Batman to catch up with him before they eventually landed in what must have been part of a hallway.

"What's the plan?" Wonder Woman asked when Batman stepped away from her.

"Right now, I think we should find John and the others," Superman said, "They said Flash is here too, so we get them and get off of this thing."

Wonder Woman nodded.

"I need to find the computer room first," Batman said suddenly.

Superman frowned. "Bruce, we've caused enough trouble already, are you sure that's a good idea?"

"It doesn't matter if it's a good idea or not – I need to find out how we got here, and just by looking at this place I think I can get at least some of the answers I need right now."

"We should stay together. You don't know what kind of dangers you'll find here."

"We both know I've probably seen worse, Boy-Scout."

Superman sighed. "You're so stubborn."

"Enough you two," Wonder Woman said. "Bruce, if it's really that important that you find a computer room on this ship, I will go with you."

"You don't have to–" Batman began protesting.

"Like Kal just said, we don't know what we'll find on this ship, and it wouldn't hurt if you had someone watching your back." She said matter-of-factly before looking at Superman. "Kal, would you be able to find the others on your own?"

"It shouldn't be too hard," Superman said, eyes glowing blue as he scanned the metal structure with his x-ray vision – he saw plenty of people scurrying about on the levels above and below them, but, as he looked further on.

Eventually, he spotted John as his skeleton was surrounded by green energy – looking on, he found Shayera nearby judging by the wings… and both of them were not alone.

"I found them," he said, his eyes turning back to normal. "They're under attack. Bruce, if you're really sure about this, then we'll meet up with you, but when we do we have to go."

"Do you know where it is?" Batman asked.

"It's that way," he pointed behind them. "About four flights of stairs up, down the second hall, three doors to your right. By the looks of it, it's empty but I wouldn't take any chances."

"How long do we have?" Wonder Woman asked.

"Not too long – fifteen, maybe twenty minutes tops?"

"I only need ten," Batman said.

"Then we better get moving," Wonder Woman said firmly.

Superman nodded. "Be careful."

Not even minutes had passed after the three of them had parted, that Thor and Iron Man touched down in the same spot.

"Give it to me straight, Blondie – exactly how do you know this… er, 'Wonder Woman'?" Tony asked awkwardly.

"How does one normally get to know a woman, Stark? I kissed her, she slapped me, we fought – it was glorious." Thor said almost dreamily.

It took all of Tony's self-control not to gape at the Asgardian. "You… kissed her?"

"Well, yes – I found her washed up on a deserted island and she wasn't responding, and from what I gathered, she must have had water in her lungs. Jane once told me that if that's the case, one should press your mouth to that person's mouth and breath."

Tony blinked a few times before he understood. "You mean you gave her mouth-to-mouth?"

Thor nodded. "Yes, I kissed her."

"No, that's not what…" Tony sighed. "You know what, never mind. Listen, we gotta find these guys before anything else happens. Think you could handle your new girlfriend if you see her?"

Thor tilted his head sideways slightly. "Girl…friend…?"

"Fine, your 'lady friend'," Tony said, deadpan.

"Ah, yes, of course," he agreed. He then set off in the left direction, but paused and turned around to look at Tony. "Oh, but, Stark? A little warning, if you are the one to find her instead of I, you should exercise caution – she fights like a Valkyrie."

Tony gave him a mock salute. "Thanks for the heads-up, pal."

The Flight Deck…

The Hulk touched down on the Helicarrier's deserted runway with a loud thump, the impact causing a large crater on the surface. Hulk then unceremoniously deposited a very pale, slightly nauseous-looking Captain America at his side.

When he was dumped on his feet, Steve had to lean against the Hulk as his head spun and there was no mistaking the amused gleam in the giant's eyes.

"Walk it off, Rogers." He said gruffly, his mouth set into a small smirk.

"Yessir…" Steve mumbled, however, when he tried taking a step forward, his legs wobbled and he decided to sit down instead. "…In a minute." He lowered his head between his knees and waved the Hulk on. "You go on ahead, I'll… catch up."

The Hulk snorted but went on anyway.

With Batman and Wonder Woman

The computer room Superman had spoken off was far larger than Diana had anticipated – completely empty, there were consoles and screens everywhere you looked, but what caught her interest was window that took up most of the back and its panoramic view of the Hudson river and the city.

"It's beautiful…" she mused, walking over to it.

"Focus on the mission, Princess." Batman said, sitting down at one of the consoles and pulled out a small black flash drive from one of the compartments of his belt.

"I'm only saying, Bruce," she said. "I've seen New York from the sky like this before, it this seems… different somehow, doesn't it?"

"It's because it is different," Batman said as he was busy typing away, not looking at her.

Diana sighed lightly. "I figured out as much… Do you remember what happened to us?" she asked, looking over her shoulder at him. "Past the Watchtower being attacked, I can't seem to recall how we ended up here."

"I'm not sure," he admitted gruffly. "I remember getting into the Batwing after the Watchtower was taken, but after that, I think I must have blacked-out."

"And green light," she said almost to herself.

"And green light," he agreed. "It must have been what sent us here."

"Magic?"

Batman shrugged, "Possibly, or some new trans-dimensional technology."

"Do you think we'll be able to find a way home?"

When he didn't immediately answer her, Diana looked over her shoulder.

"Bruce…?"

The next thing she knew, two things happened at once – just as she turned around, Batman practically tackled her to the ground.

Just as she was about to open her mouth, she heard gunfire and saw a bullet hit the glass pane where her head was several seconds ago.

Startled, when Diana looked up, she blinked when she realized just how close they were – unwittingly on Bruce's behalf no doubt she also was but all too aware of the hard edges of his body pressing against hers. Her breath caught slightly when he looked down at her as more shots rang out, eyebrows behind his cowl knit together as his mouth turned into a thin, concerned line.

Without thinking and slightly dazed, she reached up to his face and oh-so-lightly ran her fingers over his lips – he always did have very nice lips…

Batman froze as she did this but didn't pull away, but before anything else could happen, the seemingly continual gunfire stopped and they both heard a very deep, obviously very irradiated voice boom out. "Get the hell off of my ship!"

Quicker than Diana could have thought possible (or liked), Batman removed his weight from her and peered over the large computer console and saw a fuming, dark-skinned man with an eye-patch only to be shot at again.

Diana at that point had gotten up off the floor and crouched next to him.

"What do we do?" she asked over the clamor.

They exchanged significant looks and with a mutual nod, when the gunfire ceased again for a moment, both of them were on their feet.

When the man with the eye-patch started shooting again, Diana deflected the shots with her bracelets as Batman, standing back-to-back with her, readied several batarangs.

"We are not your enemy!" Diana tried to reason with the man.

The man scoffed as his remaining eye narrowed, lowering his gun temporarily. "Your team of freaks blew a hole in the side of my ship, your little friends have been tossing my men around like they're toys, and I just caught you and your pointy-eared boyfriend sneaking in here like a pair of thieves, stealing classified information – whatever you think you are, you sure as hell aren't any friends of mine."

He started shooting again but cursed when his shots stopped and he had to reload. Taking it as their chance, Diana swirled around and Batman threw a handful of batarangs at him.

The man managed to reload in time, but while he was able to hit several of the black metal disks, one caught him sharply on his arm while another planted itself in his knee. He let out a wince as he sank to his one knee and clasped his injured arm, the gun now on the ground next to him.

Diana frowned as Batman straightened up slightly – he seemed to want to go over, but, when she caught sight of the man subtly reaching for something within his black coat, she grabbed Batman's wrist just in time as he pulled out a gun.

With a sharp yank, she then pushed Batman to the ground just as more shots rang out.

Batman hit the ground with a thud and a small wince as Diana half-straddled him, holding her bracelet over her face as she ducked her head to avoid getting hit.

She then looked down, she noticed the pained grimaced on Batman's face and she realized she must have been hurting his broken ribs even more, but before she could open her mouth to apologize, there was a loud thunk and a thump, the sound of something hitting the ground.

Looking up, Diana was startled when she saw the man in the red armor Thor had called 'Stark' standing over their would-be shooter.

"You…" she said.

"'Sup, Lady Wonder?" he said wryly.

Diana bristled. "It's Wonder Woman."

Stark waved it off casually. "Whatever."

"You knocked him out, why?" She asked, narrowing her eyes.

"Well, I doubted he would have stopped if I asked him nicely… and, believe it or not, I've wanted to do that for years…" He then shrugged. "Anyway, where's Batboy?"

Despite himself, Batman let out a somewhat pained groan… which Stark took as something else completely.

"Ah…" the smirk was obvious behind the mask, "Am I interrupting something?"

Diana's face heated up despite herself and got off of Batman when she remembered that she was still hurting him.

Stark sniggered before he turned his attention to the man at his feet.

"Dammit… you two seriously owe me one. Old Fury's not gonna like me when he wakes up."

"You know him?" Diana asked as she helped Batman sit up.

Stark half-crouched down and poked an armored finger into the man's side. "Not really… well, I kind of do, but who can say really know a guy like him, really? …Let's just say I'm not his favourite person."

Batman snorted. "I wonder why…"

When the man started stirring, Diana felt a light tug at her hand as Stark's attention was temporarily diverted, and when she looked, she saw Batman holding his finger to his lips as he gestured with head towards the back door.

With a nod, Batman recovered his flash drive, Diana still holding his hand in his as they snuck out.

Nick Fury woke up to with an aching head as he slowly sat up, wondering how he got there in the first place.

Then, a voice he didn't expect. "Oh, good, I didn't kill you."

Instantly, Nick's head snapped up, and he scowled instinctively when he met the metal face of Tony Stark's mask.

"Did you just…?" he growled out at the armored man, bewildered.

"Yeah, sorry about that." He said, helping the S.H.I.E.L.D. director onto his feet again.

"Where did they-?" Nick began asking when he looked around and found that the intruders were gone.

"I don't know," Stark admitted thoughtfully. "But I'm sensing a pattern here…"

With Hawkgirl and Green Lantern

Much to Shayera's surprise, both she and John had a harder time dealing with the man and the woman – at that moment, Shayera was swatting away arrow after arrow with her mace, the redhead getting more and more frustrated as the archer didn't seem to be letting up.

John, on the other hand, had lost sight of the woman. When he heard Hawkgirl let out a gasp, he turned away from his search long enough to see Shayera grasp at a bleeding arm – when the man took another shot at her, his arrow was deflected off yet another green shield.

Of course, as he was busy with this, John didn't notice the woman coming up from behind and delivered a kick to his back that made him stagger. When she came at him again, John's body enveloped in green light and he forced her away.

But, just then, there was a strange surging sound and the next moment, the wall to their right disintegrated in a haze of red light, and both Shayera and John inwardly cheered when they saw Superman, eyes glowing red as he appeared in the hole.

However… whatever relief they were feeling vanished when, suddenly, a very large pair of green arms wrapped around the Kryptonian's waist and, with an audible crack, constricted around him as a very big green man appeared behind him.

"Superman!" John exclaimed only to be distracted when the woman pulled out a gun and started shooting at him.

After that, seemingly practiced, two pairs of doors at both sides of the lab went open at the same time, and while Shayera was again relieved when she saw Batman and Wonder Woman entering the one, she was less than thrilled when she saw a floating blond man with a large hammer and a red cape entering through the other.

For some reason, the blond man perked up when he saw the Amazon, "Ah, Lady Diana!"

It took everything of Shayera not to stare as Diana waved back at the man and smiled while Batman narrowed his eyes. And, wait – where they holding hands?

"Well… there's something you don't see every day." She mused out loud.

She heard a small snort, and when she looked, she saw the archer roll his eyes. "Tell me about it."

But, just before things got out of hand again, a gunshot rang through the air like thunder – when they all turned to look, they saw two men, one wearing red full-body mechanical armor, while the other had an eye-patch and held a gun up to the ceiling.

The archer and woman stood down immediately, lowering their weapons and grimacing when the eye-patched man looked at them.

"Can someone tell what the hell is going on here?" the man bellowed.

Everyone froze… before the silence was broken by a completely different voice.

"Guys?" the Flash asked over the monitors. "If you're all done kicking each other's butts and being weird, can someone please GET ME THE HECK OUT OF HERE!"

A/N: I may have rushed the last bit, but I hope the rest of the chapter was good enough.

Okay, next up, 'Explanations & Boundaries'.

In response to previous reviews:

Mr. Oliver Queen: Thank you, I'll try.

Wrendragongirl: Thank you :)

Wickedgirl123: Well, since Tony's dating Pepper, I didn't want him coming off as too big of a jerk, besides, she sucker-punched him, and I'm glad you liked Bats' reaction. Sorry for the wait.

Little Ceaser's: I'll explain about Jane in a later chapter and I'm just having a lot of fun writing Thor with a crush, besides, don't worry, his heart still belongs to Miss Foster

Leave a review or a PM if you have any questions, I'll try to get another chapter out as soon as possible.

Until Next Time,
GoddessofDawn out