JUSTICE LEAGUE METRO TOWER

MARCH 15TH

TWELVE TEN PM

"Bullseye…"

In a flash of cerulean light, the Avengers plus their escort, Batman, appeared elsewhere.

"We're here. Stick close and—"

Batman never got to finish, however, as he was interrupted by Wasp asking, "Whoa? What the heck just happened?"

"Teleporter. The League uses it to move personnel and supplies quickly."

"How quickly?" asked Iron Man, taking the experience of suddenly being somewhere else without expecting it in a lot more stride than some of his fellow Avengers.

"I'm afraid I can't divulge that information. Not yet anyways," Batman said as he stepped off of the teleporter pad.

"Can't, or won't?" asked Captain America.

Ignoring the question, Batman reached the door leading out of the teleporter room. Swiveling his head back around, he asked, "Coming?" before walking out.

"Well won't it is," said Hawkeye.

The Avengers walked a brisk pace to catch up with Batman, who seemed to be heading towards a pair of elevators, and found that they had been teleported into a rotunda inside of a building of sorts.

To their left, they passed by an immense computer bank with an equally immense screen built into the wall there (though a rather small swivel chair, by comparison). Above that screen was an even more immense screen and above that screen, in a row, were three screen that, while not as immense, were still pretty darn big.

To their right, they passed a large, sliding metal door, at the center of a long, curving row of smaller computer banks, smaller monitors, and swivel chairs. Above that was the second level, where a long roll of large flat screens screens were set-up, with a railing to prevent anyone from accidentally falling down. Above this was the third level, which housed a very long and curving window that apparently gave a sweeping view of a large swatch of whatever city they had been teleported in.

In fact, now that they noticed, on their own level behind the teleporter room and to the left of the the immense computer bank, was a single large window that showed such a view.

Speaking of which…

"So, where are we, exactly?" asked Wasp.

"Metro Tower," replied Batman.

"Is that still in Metropolis?"

"With a name first name like 'Metro,' what do you think?"

Frozen in place by how biting the remark was, Wasp managed to thaw herself out with the heat of her anger and stuck her tongue out at him before saying, "Well, aren't you sunny?" under her breath.

"I heard that."

"Meep!" Wasp said, under he breath, in surprise.

"That too," said Batman.

Wasp covered her mouth and made a mental note not to say anything else behind their guide's back, and continued walking.

"Your hearing is very acute," said Black Panther.

"Thanks," said Batman.

They were about to make it to the elevator when, all of a sudden, Bruce groaned on Vision's shoulder.

This caused their guide to stop, which in turn, caused them to stop.

"You know, we have a full time medical staff. Maybe you should leave your friend down in the hospital ward until he gets better."

"Eh, don't worry about him," said Yellow Jacket. "That android managed to patch all of us up after mopping the floor with our craniums. Little itty bitty Banner is just tired is all. He's just not all that used to being outside of the Hulk for so long."

Though they couldn't make out the top half of his face under that mask of his, the Avengers could just feel Batman raise a brow of intrigue at that. "Fine. Whatever. Just don't be surprised when everyone asks why you're carrying a shirtless, unconscious man around."

Hawkeye couldn't help but smirk at the looks on this guy's face when he saw Bruce pack up the green pounds into his roided up alter ego.

0-0-0-0-0

They made it to the elevators. Batman pressed two buttons, bringing both carts down to their level.

It was then, that Iron Man noticed something peculiar about the carts, besides their cylindrical shape.

"Those look a little bit too… compact."

"Correct. Each one of those carts only has enough room for about six people."

Before Iron Man could say anything, Black Panther put a hand on his shoulder and said, "You, Captain America, Thor, Wasp, and Iron Man should accompany Batman. After all, you are the most senior Avengers.

Though Iron Man wasn't exactly sure what he was trying to do, he trusted Black Panther and said, "You heard the man. Hawkweye, Marvel, Vision, you go with Panther in the one on the right.

Equally unsure as to what was going on, the teams split up into their respective elevators.

As soon as the doors closed shut, Iron Man heard Black Panther's voice come in his comm-link.

"This place looks as though it cost a king's ransom."

"Tell me about it," Iron Man said, safe in the knowledge that his faceplate would not allow anyone else in his elevator, Batman included, hear the conversation taking place. "Apparently, from the information I have brought up right now, the League is funded all on private donations."

Both elevators began their ascent.

"Hrmmm… interesting."

"Did your sensory equipment have just as much trouble breaking through his costume as mine did?"

"Yes. It did."

"Darn. If your tech couldn't crack it, then this guy really must know his stuff."

"Indeed. I was only able to tell that it was insulated and what it was comprised off. Aside from that, spectrographic analysis wasn't able to see just who is the man behind the mask."

Iron Man huffed. "Maybe he'll be so persuaded by yours truly that he'll flat out tell us."

"With your brand of charm, he may just hack your suit and force you to punch yourself in the face repeatedly."

Iron Man was taken aback. "Did… did you just make a joke?" he asked of his normally stoic comrade.

After a few seconds of radio silence, the Black Panther said, "No."

It was then, that both elevators chimed, and theor doors slid open.

0-0-0-0-0

Yeah, I know. After months of not updating this story, this little snippet probably won't do it for any of you, but after months of hiatus, what better way was there to let people know that I've gotten back in the mood necessary to write this story and that I'm going to be working on it more seriously for the foreseeable future? Sure, the rest of this chapter, once completed, will mostly just be talking, build-up, and character interaction (with some hints thrown here about this or that), but the it'll all be worth it once we FINALLY get to the first adventure(s) that the Avengers are going to get into with members of the League!

Until next time, so long, farewell, and Auf Wiedersehen goodnight!