Barry had run off as soon as Bruce agreed, in a spark of blue he was at the controls to the cells. He was then in front of Tony's cell before it even started opening. He stared in amazement at the Iron Man amour as the glass wall slowly slid into the floor, his eyes flashed between the amour and Tony's astonished gaze as he held his arc reactor in his hand. Tony just looked up at the black-haired kid, while his hands put his reactor back in his chest.
"Love the colours." Barry complimented, his eyes glistened with joy as he appeared next to the suit. Tony blinked a few times, the sudden gleam of lightning blurring his vison for a second. "Barry Allan." Barry then materialized in front of Tony offering his hand, he slowly accepted it and was pulled to his feet.
"Tony Stark." Tony replied as the kid smiled awkwardly, the kid still having hold of his hand.
"Flash!" Bruce and the others rushed over, Bruce's identity again masked by his cowl.
"What, you said to trust them?"
"Not with your identity." Bruce scowled. The other Avengers had taken a few steps out of their cells, Thor went to retrieve his hammer when a look from Steve told him otherwise.
"Why not?" Diana questioned walking past Bruce towards Natasha. "We want them to trust us." Diana smiled putting her hand out to Natasha. "Diana of Themyscira." Natasha looked at the woman who had attacked her only a few hours ago, the pain in her stomach still present.
"Natasha Romanoff." Natasha replied not shaking Diana's hand. Diana dropped her hand, understanding Natasha's wariness. Bruce watched the scrawny scientist approach him, the small man clutched his stretched trousers with one hand.
"Banner, Bruce Banner." Like the others he held out his hand. After a few awkward moments, he took the man's hand, while simultaneously pulling off his cowl with the other.
"Bruce Wayne." He replied with a sense of pride in his voice. Banner smiled, adjusting his glasses after shaking his hand. Bruce was surprised with Banner's lack of reaction, his identity normally triggering a response from most.
Steve had gone straight to Tony, the sight of him hitting the floor and being unable to do anything still plagued his mind. After checking on one of the billionaires in the room, he turned to see Thor shake hands and exchange names with Victor. Arthur stood a fare distance away, just observing.
"I think we got off on the wrong foot." Steve stated, as him and Tony exited the cell, leaving Barry slowly circling the amour. "We just want to figure out a way to get back to our Earth."
"And you think the Mother Box is the key?" Victor asked.
"It brought us here, it should be able to take us back." Banner responded. Steve noticed Tony's hand go to his chest, even though his reactor was not yet flickering.
"Tony, you alright?" Steve asked, full well knowing he wasn't.
"I will be when we get home." Tony forced a smile.
"The Mother Box is over here" Bruce led the others through the cave, not wanting to waste any more time.
The Mother Box sat in the middle of table. Easily deceiving with its simplistic shape and look, hiding the power that resided within the metal.
"You mentioned you where scanning it when it transported you here, what were you scanning it for?" Bruce questioned, his eyes fixated on the Mother Box as if it was about to pounce like a wild animal.
"It's transmitting and receiving a signal, I was just analysing and attempting to track it." Tony told Bruce, the Avengers gathered on one side of the table, Diana, Bruce and Victor stood on the other. Barry was too busy drooling over the Iron Man amour, while Arthur remained at a distance. "My guess is the location of the signal that the Mother Box is receiving, is the same location its transmitting to."
"What signal?" Victor asked what Bruce was about to. "We analysed the Mother Box when we brought it here, there has been no single, transmitted or received."
"It's been dormant since your friend's lightning triggered a reaction." Bruce added, giving Thor a quick glance.
"Thor, son of Odin." Thor bellowed, his name holding much honour to most who know him.
"Good for you." Bruce said before returning to the problem at hand. "If it was transmitting a signal before why isn't it now?"
"What if the signals location was your world?" Tony deduced. "What if something on your Earth transmitted a signal to the Mother Box which resulted in it accidently bringing us here." Tony's brain was running at a mile a minute, helping keep his mind of the dying arc reactor in his chest. "I don't think we were meant to be brought here, I think we were just along for the ride." Tony was slightly relieved that he might have not been the causes of their sudden trip to a parallel universe.
"Explains why the Mother Box didn't take us back when it realised that explosion of energy again." Banner added rubbing his chin with one hand as he raked his brain for answers.
"The question is what brought the Mother Box here in the first place."
"Or who." Diana turned to Bruce, the same thought running through both their heads.
"Arthur." Bruce turned, Arthur remained where he was, lingering in the shadows. "When was the last time you visited Atlantis?"
"The Mother Box is safe Bruce, it's in a highly secure location only known to a few." Arthur replied slightly insulted with Bruce's lack of faith. "I would have been informed if there was any concern." Arthur didn't seem at all worried compared to Bruce but thanks to their exchange it was now clear to the Avengers there was still, to no surprise, something being kept from them.
"There's more than one of these things?" Steve questioned folding his arms in annoyance.
"There's four in total, we only knew of three until today." Diana briefed them, to Bruce's annoyance.
"Why are the other three locked up, what are these Mother Boxes capable of?" Natasha spoke up, she again had kept quite taking in all the information until she figured it was time to act. To her, information was power. Natasha locked eyes with Bruce, almost attempting to force the answers from him. The tension in the room was suddenly shattered when Barry appeared at the head of the table, his lightning flicked around dangerously near the Mother Box.
"You have to show me how your suit works!" Barry's eyes were wild with excitement, he locked eyes with Tony. However, their attention was quickly drawn to the Mother Box, a spark of lightning had taped the surface bringing it to life, just for a moment. Dark blue light seeped from its seams long enough to make everyone jump back. Only after a few more seconds did everyone settle.
"Barry, you need to be careful, you know it absorbs energy!" Bruce shouted at the kid, the energy in his face and eyes suddenly vanished and embarrassment took over.
"I didn't think-"
"Well next time just think for a second, you could have blown us all up!" Bruce cut Barry off.
"Hay!" Steve barked. "Go easy on the kid." The room went silent. The silence was only broken when a sudden alert sound came from the computer, it was demanding the password to view an incoming message. Bruce rushed over knowing what it was, he rapidly typed in the long password unlocking the computer. A screen then flashed up, a security alert appeared in big red bold letter.
"There's been a break in at one of Wayne Enterprises advanced tech warehouses." Bruce addressed his team members, almost forgetting the Avengers were there.
"That can't be a coincidence?" Tony mumbled to Steve, straight away his own tech company, Stark Industries came to mind.
"The security personnel and cameras are down, we need to move." Bruce shot up out his chair and snatched up his cowl from the side.
"What, all of us?" Arthur questioned.
"No. You, Diana and Victor with me. Barry, you stay here with…" Bruce paused, looking over at the Avengers. "Our guests."
"Wait why? I can get there faster than any of you." Barry's words where so fast his lips almost tripped on the sounds.
"Because I said so!" The cold tone in Bruce's voice bounced off the walls of the cave, all eyes were on him, he didn't care. Diana wanted to intervene but Bruce seemed to be finding it hard to step down as a leader and now wasn't the time to fight for authority. "Diana get Clark to meet us there." Bruce ordered as he made his way to the large ship that sat in a hanger, deeper into the cave. The Justice League didn't move, "Come on!" Bruce called for his team, Victor and Arthur followed, while Diana gave Barry one last supporting look before also leaving.
"Cap, I'm surprised you didn't offer a helping hand." Tony turned to Steve, truly surprised the solider hadn't jumped at the chance to help their new friends.
"They look more than capable of handling themselves, you on the other hand." Tony noticed Steve quickly take a look at his arc reactor.
"Look, I just need to run a few tests and I'll now exactly where the break in the circuit is."
"Tony there's no way of you even attempting to repair the arc reactor without taking it apart." Banner stepped in, realising the few options Tony had.
"You got a car battery round here?" Tony kept eye contact with Steve even though his question was directed at Barry, when he didn't reply he looked over at the skinny kid.
"Err, yes?" Barry stammered, for someone who was so fast the question caught him off guard.
"Perfect." Tony smiled even though inside he knew the risks, and it was nothing to be smiling about.
Authors Notes
Hello all, I have to say I don't think this chapter was very good. I think it was slow and boring but I'm too lazy to rewrite it. What do you think? Anyway I will see you soon with a better chapter hopefully.