A vibration and a loud humm signalled the teleportation device was working. Seconds later, a group composed of most of both Vanguards faded into the open space in the middle of the teleportation room.
The Vanguardians found themselves surrounded by several teleportation tubes, perhaps twenty. The more curious ones noticed there was a circular base like the one on the top and bottom of every tube on both the ceiling directly above the group and the floor below their feet, that turned the center of the room into one big teleportation device, surely reserved for situations like these. The rest of the team was looking at their host in front of them.
"Hello," the purple costumed man said, "my name is Brian Dead. Welcome to the Strikeforce 3's Space Station. 'The Station' for short."
"Hello," Brute Force said, waving hello.
"Uh, are you reading from that piece of paper?" Tommy asked.
Brian froze. He looked down at his piece of paper. It said nothing about what to say in case of questions not regarding the Station's many advantages, like its ample restrooms, handicapped bathrooms, and fully-equiped cafeteria. "Hello, my name is--"
"You already said that," Drake said. "Take us to your leader, please."
Brian flipped the piece of paper (fold-in brochure would be a better way to describe it). "Please follow me and I'll take you to the meeting room, where the rest of the mighty Strikeforce awaits you." With that he exited the room, and the rest of the people in it followed.
"Huh..." Phil said, looking at the installations as he walked, not the least bit impressed by what he saw. "I imagined something more... advanced."
"Yeah, our old headquarters was better equiped than this joint..." Griss added.
"Well, to be fair to them, it's not exactly an easy task to build something that could be compared to our old headquarters," Phil said, before letting out a long sigh full of nostalgia.
Bri lightly punched him in the back of his shoulder. "All right, all right! It was great, we get it! Stop making me feel bad!"
"Don't make me take you down, Philly..." Griss said.
"Yeah, we didn't build this anyways," Brian, looking back at Phil. "This is an abandoned Soviet Station the UN gave us."
Phil rolled his eyes. "Well, that explains it..."
The team reached the meeting room where, quite apropiately, they met the a larger part of the Strikeforce, to make a lame pun. Hero, Graviton, Freak and ACK were.
"Welcome to our humble base of operations," Graviton said. "I know you haven't had good experiences with other incarnations of our team, but I'm hoping we can leave that in the past and work together in this case," he said, offering a hand to whoever took it.
Drake immediatly stepped forward and shook hands with the German scientist. "I'm willing to give you guys an oportunity, and I think I speak for the rest of the team." Graviton smiled. "However, we've agreeded to never let our guard down until we fully trust you. I'm sure you understand."
"We do," Hero said. "Now, please take a seat... Let's get to business."
