A soft hum was the only indication something had just passed by as the waves bump lazily into each other. Night reigns over the sky while stars glow like the embers of a fire above. Such darkness was warm and calm with the wide expanse of ocean beneath it.
Abruptly, a beam of light slices through the dark cloak like a well-forged blade as it cuts a clean path into the surrounding shadows. The origin of the light is unclear but begins to come into view over the horizon.
The air seems to falter and warp. Swirling and slowly changing, the air shimmers into a new shape. A smooth-edged ship erupts into view as the shimmering fades, its design of alien origin. Inside the cockpit, a sleepy red-haired teen yawns, looking bored.
"Ugh, it's too early in the morning for this," complains the red-head between yawns.
"This is nothing. Bats and I are always staying up all night keeping Gotham safe," counters a boy with short, black hair.
"Yeah, but couldn't this mission have waited?" asks the older teen as he lifts his red goggles to rub at his sharp, green eyes drowsily.
"I hate to admit it, but I have to agree with Wally. I don't see why we have to do this mission in the middle of the night," adds a girl with her long, blonde hair in a ponytail.
"And just a few hours after another mission too," points out a teen with ginger hair and unusual green skin.
"I'm sure once we complete our objectives and finish this mission, Batman will allow us a break," reassures a darker-skinned teen with cropped, white hair.
"Hey, look!" The pilot points at a sturdy tower in the distance.
"What is it? More ocean?" Tired from lack of sleep, Wally replies with a sarcastic tone made dull by exhaustion.
"Wow, a speedster with no energy left. Call me whelmed, Wally," teases the boy with ebony hair.
Wally tries to jab his friend in the side with his elbow, but the alert and ready ninja easily avoids the attack.
"Seriously, will no one pay attention to this?" The ginger pilot gestures towards the expanse of ocean before her, uninterrupted except for the white tower in the near distance.
"Is this the lighthouse Batman mentioned?" asks the white-haired teen as he holds himself with a confident demeanor, making him obviously the team's leader.
A blinding dagger of light answers his question as it cuts a path through the darkness to the lighthouse.
"What's a lighthouse doing way out here? There's no land or boats in sight," points out Wally as he props his head up with his hand.
"That's why we're here: to investigate the unusualness of the situation," explains the dark-skinned teen.
"So we can't go to sleep because we have to check out a stupid lighthouse in the middle of the ocean?!" growls the blonde in irritation.
"Come on Artemis, Batman wouldn't send us all the way out here if he didn't feel it was important," points out the younger boy, his blue eyes carefully concealed by a mask.
Ignoring the boy wonder, the green-clothed archer crosses her legs in contempt.
"There's no good place to land, so I'll just lower the Bioship onto the water near those stairs," announces the teen Martian.
"Aw, if I'd known we were going swimming I would have brought my trunks," jokes Wally half-heartedly.
Gently, the Bioship lowers its sleek, red form into the water and floats harmlessly with the waves.
With their leader in front, the team of teens walks across the wings of the Bioship and to the stairs of the lighthouse.
"Uh, do lighthouses normally look like this?" questions Wally as he stares up at the towering structure before him.
The team pauses to examine the lighthouse up close. Throughout most of its exterior structure, the lighthouse is shrouded in shadow, but the main source of its light illuminates its peak. With a strict flat-edge design rather than a smooth curved design, the lighthouse has an intimidatingly edgy look to it. There was even a dark aura that emanates from its core, unnerving some of the teens.
"I found some doors! I think it's the entrance," calls the ginger teen as she clung loosely to the handle of a massive, gold door.
"Good work, M'gann. Now let's move," orders their pale-eyed leader.
With the assistance of a bulky teen sporting jet-black hair deemed Conner, the team enters the lighthouse with cautious stances.
"Be ready everyone. Anything can happen," warns Kaldur, the leader figure.
Unable to see more than a few feet from the doors, the team hesitantly merges into the darkness…