Diana Prince sat pleasantly in the back of a Rolls Royce Wraith, provided by Gotham's famous Bruce Wayne or rather her coworker, Batman. His butler and lifelong friend, Alfred, chauffeured the Wonder Woman. The interior of the luxurious car was a velvet burgundy with Versace curtains and stars on the roof. Diana was slightly impressed by man's luxury but it was still nothing compared to Themyscira.
"Has Bruce always been so materialistic?" Diana pondered aloud, she'd worked with Batman before a few times with Superman, but she never got the chance to work with Bruce Wayne or Clark Kent, who seemed to be good friends with each other.
"Mister Wayne says it's part of his act when he's not being himself, going out at night… or making friends." Alfred said, shifting his to Diana through the car's rear view mirror.
"Oh." She hummed to herself silently. Batman, an interesting man he is, She thought to herself. Moments later, Alfred stopped in front of an entrance gate, waiting for them to open. He followed the path behind the gate leading him to Wayne Manor.
The Batcave sat under the castle-like mansion. Bruce Wayne sat at a large round table surrounded by six other chairs. Engraved on the table was a large JL, with the words Justice League encircled around the lower half of the logo. The name had grown on Bruce since Fash had given the team the name the other night at GCPD, after the group of heroes fought together for the first time against Batman's rogues gallery.
"Miss Prince," Alfred showed Diana to the batcave, then he disappeared back into the Manor.
"Diana, how was your ride here?" Bruce asked, watching her make her way down the cave's stairs. She stepped past the Batcomputer and took a seat opposite of Bruce. She stared at him.
"Where's the rest of the… league?" she raised a brow, looking at the table's logo then at Bruce. For a second Bruce was confused, it was rare for a woman to brush off his charm, but then again this was Wonder Woman.
"Yea, the name grew on me ever since Flash came up with it the other night." he replied. Before the conversation could carry on, the young Jason Todd flipped over the cave's stairs, and landed on the table's surface, standing tall and puffing his chest.
"Greetings Robin," smiled Diana, she thought it was odd Bruce had teenage sidekicks, but she thought it was good he adopted the troubled youth.
Jason smirked then looked back at Bruce, "So Wonder Woman is your new girlfriend huh?" Bruce just glared at the boy, Jason just shrugged his shoulders and flipped his way off the table. "I'm just gonna go train, oh and the rest of your friends are here." he said, before disappearing to the other side of the cave.
"He's cute." Diana looked at Bruce before they greeted the rest of the league.
The circle of seven heroes was complete. Bruce, Clark, John, Barry, Diana, J'onn, and Arthur sat around the newly designed table.
"I see you went with the name I made up!" chuckled Barry, kicking his feet up on the table.
"Feet off." glared Bruce. Barry quickly corrected himself, awkwardly smiling. Even without the cowl Bruce still installed fear into him.
Bruce cleared his throat before starting, "I brought you all here today to talk about our next mission. Superman told me there's rumors going around Metropolis, that Lex Luthor is building some sort of weaponized Android."
"Lex is building a terminator? Shouldn't we be heading over to his office building right now instead of sitting around?" Barry questioned.
"Good warriors do not start wars, but are always ready for one." Diana pointed out.
"Diana is right. We don't have confirmation if this is underway, Lex is still in a position of high power. Storming him wouldn't do us any good. However," Bruce walked over to the computer and started typing on it, "There is an undisclosed shipment being made to Metropolis from Gotham Harbor going on tonight. I am suspicious this is a weapon trade, I am going to investigate it tonight."
"What will we do in the meantime?" John asked next.
"You will accompany me. If something goes south, I'll call you in."
"Are you certain that is a smart idea? I sense this could very well be a trap." J'onn wasn't sure about this.
"If anything goes wrong I know I can count on you to assist me. If this ties back to Lex and confirms he has a plan in place, he'd be smarter then pull out all the cards tonight."
Lex Luthor was many things, a rich man, industrialist, inventor, scientist, as well as being one of the most intelligent minds on the planet among other impressive credentials. A man of his prestige, his wealth, it was no surprise he managed to keep his image up while dabbling in treacherous acts behind the scenes. The disapproving attitude and hate towards the Man of Steel was no secret, Lex and Superman were sworn enemies. Lex would do anything in his path to put him down.
His latest project was risky and one of the most ambitious yet. If it all went accordingly, this would be his opportunity to steer things in his direction. No longer would he worry about Superman and his friends, he would be the dominant force.
Underneath the city of Metropolis was his secret compound where his new project was being finished. An elevator took him to the ground level, opening up and allowing him to enter. Alongside him was his partner in crime Mercy Graves. The two walked into a control room and peered into the large glass window that showed the android being assembled. "Isn't it just amazing?" Another man in the room spoke. The man was Doctor Ivo, the creative mind behind the androids creations.
Lex had his radar on Ivo for a long time. He admired his intellect and his ideas, his project Amazo being the one that he put everything towards. The android Amazo had the capability of other abilities of Superheroes and villains. If it was successful, Lex would have himself an unstoppable terror machine, Superman would never last against it.
"You've outdone yourself Ivo. If this is a success, I will be up most pleased." Lex complimented with a light smile.
"If this goes right then this'll be my best work to date! Who knows what this'll do for us in the future!" Ivo grinned, tapping his fingers together. Mercy didn't comment, pulling Lex to the side by the collar of his suit.
"Can we trust him? The man is smart, but also mad with ideas..!" She asked in a hushed voice, keeping it between herself and Lex.
"Relax. Have I failed you before? Once I know this is going to work, the Doctor will no longer be of use to us. It'll be like he never existed."
"I'll make it happen myself, better hope your odds are in your favor." Mercy threatened, letting him go back.
Lex Luthor was aware the ambition of Ivo was just as strong as his, but that was something he wouldn't allow to outshine him. If Amazo was done right, he'd make quick work of Ivo and take his ideas for himself. Given all the freedom and control he had on the project, Ivo's power lust was becoming more clear as the completion of Amazo neared.
"Have you developed a distraction for our hero friends?" Mercy joined them again.
"I have set the scene up, yes. Batman will be busy tonight surely, I know it. His drive won't allow him to slow down."
The night had fallen on Gotham City. The warehouse by the docks was busy with criminal activity. The crew was bringing in a large crate and loading it up on a white truck. The boxes held nothing but stock items made to simulate varying weight. The men had no clue and did what they were told to do. It was a part of the plan, Lex was smart enough to know Batman would intercept something like this going on in his own city. Weave a story, set it in motion, the distraction was in place and gave the needed time for Amazo to be finished. The men had all been paid the same and only had tips from the anonymous employer, nothing more.
Outside of the warehouse nearby, the Justice League was posted up on a building rooftop, eyeing the warehouse. Batman already moved in towards the warehouse, Aquaman took to spying in the waters, Superman patrolling Metropolis for any activity, while the others waited on the rooftop. "You know, if we all just pitched in this would be done in five seconds or less." Flash tapped his foot impatiently.
"Batman knows what he's doing, if there is a trap in place it wouldn't be a good idea to all move in at once." Wonder Woman insisted.
"I trust his judgement. I can feel for him, if he is in any imminent danger I will alert you." Martian Manhunter promised. The martian had picked up signatures when they arrived, but he wasn't going to barge in… yet. Nothing alarming, but maybe that was a part of it. He was optimistic and let Batman do his thing, they would be needed in time.
Getting into position was easy enough for the Caped Crusader, after all, he had done this many times before and it was going to be an easy bust. Batman had taken out the power in the warehouse, alerting the men. Inside the warehouse was about five men, light work. The floor underneath the men began to collapse as Batman used his batclaw to pull himself up from the basement and ambush the crew. He was quick on his feet and the first man didn't expect it, getting caught off guard as Batman pounced on him, knocking him unconscious with ease.
One of the men raised a weapon at Batman but Batman aimed his grappling gun at him and pulled him over, launching the man forward into a gnarly punch. Wasting no time, Batman moved in on the other three men, delivering rising kicks and dodging all of their advances. Two men collapsed on each other and the third was scooped up by the throat and slammed on top of them courtesy of Batman.
Five wasn't all that had been present. Outside of the warehouse a crowd started towards the building, wielding guns and blunt weapons like barbed wire bats. A streak of light circled around the group, weapons falling all around them. Broken bats and bullets. "Did I do that?" The Flash stood in front of the group, grinning. The angry men were ready to fight but Flash was joined by Wonder Woman, Green Lantern, and Martian Manhunter by his side, and chose to turn around and flee instead. The escape attempt was stopped with a large wave crashing down on the crowd and knocking them all to the floor.
Aquaman flipped his wet hair to the side and walked over to the others, "And that is how it's done."
"Good work." Batman glide down onto the floor. "Now let's check the shipments."
"Nothing." Flash confirmed after opening the last of the crates, shuffling through the contents.
"It was a set up." Batman grunted, clenching his fists.
"But why? Whoever did this, what reason?" Green Lantern thought aloud.
"I know who did it."
Superman flew down from the sky and landed on the floor. "It was Lex Luthor. I know where he is, we don't have much time."
"Lead the way." Batman nodded, ready to get to the bottom of things.