"Wow! I can't believe we're having another mission today! And it's in Switzerland! I can't wait to see how it looks like!"
"I thought you traveled all of Europe when you were with the Doom Patrol, Gar."
"Heh, we only went to France, Tim. Maybe Romania as well. Anyway, that was during the time the Brotherhood of Evil was rising to power a few years ago."
"Huh. Well, I guess that makes sense."
Beast Boy smiled at Red Robin and turned his head to the window on his left, taking the view into blissful account. They were all currently flying over French-controlled airspace on their route to Switzerland, where they would assist the authorities with investigating the claims of the humanoids and the unidentified object. From his seat, he could see Superman and Hawkgirl talking in the communicators and, occasionally, with each other while Zatanna and Bumblebee were softly giggling on the other side of the ship. Beast Boy's curious mind was itching to know what they were saying but his gut told him not to meddle in their affairs, all in large part to the incident where he had mistaken Cyborg's charging equipment as a game system and caused him to have a virus in his system.
"At any rate, I'm sure you might feel the snow once we arrive to our destination," Red Robin said as he made several annotations on his holopad.
"Yeah," Beast Boy said, looking back at him. "And the forests, too! There might be some animals I could morph into!"
"Alright, calm down. I think that last thing we need is you becoming a lynx or a red deer of sorts."
"Hmph! You're no fun!"
"You just sound like Bart right now, you know?"
Beast Boy crossed his arms and looked back at the window, making Red Robin let out a sigh as he turned back to his holopad. Meanwhile, at the other side of the ship, Bumblebee and Zatanna were making a small ruckus as they told each other what they last week. They were currently having fits of laughter as Zatanna narrated about the time Artemis offered herself to be Wally's food tester one morning, which had turned out to be a bad idea. To say that things didn't go volatile between the two that day, it'd be the understatement of the century.
"... not only that, she didn't even hide her distaste of Wally's strawberry waffles," Zatanna said, trying her best not to laugh even though she was bad at it. "You should've seen her face that day!"
Bumblebee laughed, "OH... OH MY GOD... THIS IS SO GOOD TO LET IT SLIDE AWAY!"
"I KNOW, RIGHT?! AND THEN SHE DRANK AN ENTIRE CARTON GRAPE JUICE JUST TO GET RID OF THE TASTE! HAHAHA!"
"Man, Artemis sure knows how to brighten the mood sometimes" Bumblebee said, breathing heavily and wiping her tears from laughing a lot. Then she gave Zatanna a smirk and laid her elbow on the seat armrest.
Zatanna noticed this and lifted an eyebrow, "What?"
"You know what," Bumblebee said. "Have you told her yet or... did something interesting happened between you two?"
Zatanna tilted her head slightly in confusion, only to set it up straight and blush slightly after making sense on what Bumblebee asks. "Uh, no, I haven't told her yet."
Bumblebee sighed, "It's been three years now, Zatanna. When will you confess your feelings to her?"
Zatanna rubbed her hands as she spoke, "Soon, I promise. I just... don't know how to do it. Should we go out to a beach or be straightforward to her?"
"First one. Definitely the beach. It has a more romantic appeal than the other one."
"Ah! Thank you for advising me! I'll do it when we get back."
"No problem, girl! Best of luck!"
While everyone spoke to each other, Superman kept the Javelin in its flight path just as Hawkgirl listened to the transmissions emitted between the Swiss government and the Watchtower. He stretched his back on his seat and she looked up at how everyone was doing and the sky in front of her if a bird showed up at sight range. She turned back to the controls, however, as the console received a transmission from the Swiss Armed Forces.
"Clark, we're receiving a transmission from Dübendorf Air Base," she spoke, looking at Superman and putting on her communicator as well.
He nodded and looked back at the team and spoke, "Everyone, put on your seatbelts now. We're reaching the French-Swiss border in a few minutes."
Zatanna, Bumblebee and Beast Boy sat up straight in their seats and put on their belts while Red Robin just closed his holopad. Hawkgirl pressed the console and a holographic image appeared in the window-screen of the ship. The image revealed a middle aged man, whom bared scars all over his face and wore the uniform of the Air Force. His insignia reflected two stars, revealing that he was in command of the Air Force.
'Ugh... Those must've hurt a lot,' Beast Boy groaned mentally after observing the man in the screen. He unconsciously moved one hand to his left eye before lowering it back to his thigh.
"Javelin 091, this is General Matteo Felix of the Swiss Air Force. Do you read me? Over."
Hawkgirl looked at the screen and spoke, "General Felix, this is Javelin 091. We read you loud and clear. We're 7 klicks northwest to the border. ETA is... 10 minutes out. Over."
The man sighed, "Acknowledged. We've dispatched 2 jets to escort you to the landing zone. Patching coordinates now. Over."
"Received. What's the status on the ground? Over," Superman spoke, glancing between the screen and console at the same time.
"It seems that the situation has evolved into a crisis. I can't say for sure the extent of it, though. You'll rendezvous with Captain Theo down there. Over."
"Copy that, General. Over and out," Hawkgirl said and turned off the transmission. She turned to Superman and spoke, "Looks like things have gone awry down there."
"When do things never go from bad to worse at our presence, Shayera?" Superman replied.
"True. But still... something seems off about all this."
"We'll know for sure when we get there. Right now, let's keep our eyes and ears open."
Hawkgirl nodded and returned to the controls to listen the transmissions the other Leaguers had with the Watchtower. Superman descended the ship's altitude slowly and turned a bit southeast based on the coordinates he received.
It didn't took them long enough to know that they crossed the border, all in part by the appearance of the Alps and the presence of two jets escorting them to the Grisons Canton.
"Okay, things seem to have gotten worse than we thought," Bumblebee spoke as she took a long look at her surroundings.
"Yeah, you could say that again," Zatanna replied, stepping out of the ship behind Beast Boy.
They have landed in the outskirts of where the unidentified object was located. The object had a semi-circular shape with ruptures on its sides. Several large fragments laid across the forest and smaller portions were visible on the roads and villages, whereas the colossal part of it extended into the sky hundreds of feet from the ground. The white, ominous structure emitted fog and lightning, its energy converting all vegetation and ground into strange, dark matter.
There were also dozens of military transports and tanks on the road, all of them positioned in a tactical line of defense in front of the forest. Several jets flew above the forest in tight-V formations just as helicopters patrolled all nearby villages from the air. Some soldiers were moving from one checkpoint to another while others patrolled the campsite established near the village. The team assumed it was the command post overseeing the mission and walked towards the tent in the center.
"You're here. Good," a man spoke upon seeing the heroes enter the tent. He was a young man around his late 30s, his face having a combination of worry and frustration that was briefly replaced by relief at the sight of the Justice League. He extended an arm to greet them and said, "Captain Theo Walcott of the 11th Mechanized Brigade, at your service."
"Nice meeting you here, captain," Superman said, grabbing the man's hand to salute him. "What's happening out there?"
"We set up shop here at 0547 hours and evacuated all civilians after setting the perimeter at 0759 hours. We sent two reconnaissance teams to investigate the forest hours ago but have lost contact with them ever since. Attempts to make a direct line of communication have been impossible, suggesting that the signal must be... jammed by some type of machinery."
"Some machinery, huh?" Hawkgirl spoke. "Are you sure they're not just out of range or around a hill that's interfering with the radio waves?"
The man replied, "No, ma'am. These hills aren't high enough to interfere with our frequencies and the range of transmission was increased after Apokolips' invasion. Disruptions in our comms like this shouldn't even happen in the first place."
"He's right," Red Robin spoke. "It would take either a massive structure - such as the one we saw right now- or some high tech aircraft to cause a disruption this big to occur. And based on what I'm seeing, I doubt that both alternatives aren't the reason why it happened."
"Capitaine! Nous avons finalement établi le contact avec Zulu-1, [Captain! We finally established contact with Zulu-1,]" a woman wearing a communicator on her head spoke to the man in French. She carried a holopad containing the message in her arms and laid it on the table, connecting it to the computer there fast.
"Finalement, [Finally,]" the man replied to her equally. Then he put on his communicator and spoke, "Zulu-1, c'est l'Avant-Poste de l'Aigle. Quel est ton statut? Plus de. [Zulu-1, this is Eagle Outpost. What is your status? Over.]"
"(gunshots and shouting) Zulu-1 à Avant-Poste de l'Aigle! Nous avons pris contact avec des formes de vie extraterrestres inconnues et prenons le feu de tous les côtés! Zulu-2 est en panne! Répétez, Zulu-2 est en panne! (explosions) Zulu-1 demander des renforts! Nous avons besoin d'une sauvegarde immédiate vers le bas- (static). [Zulu-1 to Eagle Outpost! We made contact with unknown alien life-forms and are taking fire from all sides! Zulu-2 is down! Repeat, Zulu-2 is down! Zulu-1 requesting reinforcements! We need immediate backup down-]."
"Zulu-1? Zulu-1, êtes-vous là? Entrez, Zulu-1! [Zulu-1? Zulu-1, are you there? Come in, Zulu-1!]" the man shouted, trying to reestablish the connection to no avail. He grunted in frustration and spoke to the woman, "Merde! Envoyez-le immédiatement le 7 novembre! C'est maintenant une opération de recherche et sauvetage au combat! [Shit! Send out November-7 out there immediately! This is now a combat search and rescue operation!]"
The woman nodded and jogged out of the tent towards the designated team for the operation. The heroes were stunned by the transmission but focused their attention to the man when he turned to them, "We'll need your assistance out there as well."
"We'll get on it," Superman spoke. He looked at his companions and said, "Robin, we need you running logistics and be our ears from here. Hawkgirl, Beast Boy and Bumblebee, you three will be our eyes in the sky while Zatanna and I reinforce the rescue team on the ground. Got it?"
"Understood, Superman," Hawkgirl said. "Let's go, now."
With that said, the heroes went out to do their designated tasks and carry out the mission. They all carried a nonchalant expression on their faces, but deep down, in their minds, they were worried about the missing soldiers.
And hoped that they weren't too late to save them...