Once they left the camp, the heroes walked towards one of the tanks to meet up with the search and rescue team. Upon arrival, they met with a man whose insignia designated him as sergeant and leader of the team, gathering the men and women assigned to the mission in two rows with seven people in each one. The man noticed them and proceeded to greet them.
"I am so glad that you're here to help us," he said, extending one arm to them. "Sergeant Liam Nevio, November-7's squad leader. At your service."
Hawkgirl shook the man's hand and spoke, "It's good meeting you here, sergeant. We're here to offer our assistance in your search for Zulu-1. We hope to bring them back safe and sound."
"I welcome all the help I can get. With that said, it's time we got started," the man said. He turned to his team and spoke in French, "Bon, écoutez tout le monde! Nous sommes rassemblés ici dans un seul but: Nous sommes ici pour localiser et ramener nos camarades de la forêt. EOC a récupéré la dernière transmission de Zulu-1 à quelques klicks près de l'objet, ce qui signifie que nous entrerons là-bas en territoire inconnu. Et soyez attentif au mouvement de l'ennemi. Obtenu que? [Alright, listen up everyone! We are gathered here for one purpose: We are here to locate and bring home our comrades back from the woods. EOC picked up Zulu-1's last transmission a few klicks near the object, meaning that we'll be entering uncharted territory there. And be alert for enemy movement. Got that?]"
The soldiers shouted, "Chef, oui, chef! [Sir, yes, sir!]"
"Bien. Maintenant, avancez! [Good. Now march forward!]"
The team began to march ahead into the forest, with Superman covering their right flank and Zatanna the left. Hawkgirl, Beast Boy and Bumblebee took to the skies and scouted the woods from above, all the while Red Robin assessed the team with logistics from the camp. Every soldier was determined to find their fellow comrades, taking failure at the task as not an option for them.
Two hours have passed since the mission began and the team had been all but successful. They split up in groups of three and searched every part of the woods, every rock they passed, and every small hill they saw, and in neither of them they have found traces of their comrades. Superman tried using his x-ray vision but found nothing beyond the trees; Zatanna tapped into her magick to see if there were arcane trails left behind, leading to the same result as Superman; and Hawkgirl and Bumblebee couldn't spot any movement due to the forest's vegetation. Everyone was tired from searching a lot, so they rendezvoused in an open space of the woods and sat down. The Sun lit the sky in bright orange, a signal indicating that afternoon had already descended upon them.
The team's leader sighed and wiped the sweat out of his forehead as he drank from his bottle. "This is going nowhere," he muttered to himself, "There's no way they could've disappeared without a trace!"
Superman, hearing the man become more worried than ever, pressed on his communicator and spoke, "Superman to Eagle Outpost. Have you managed to locate Zulu-1's transmitter? Over."
"This is Eagle Outpost. Our efforts have been all but fruitful. We think the object's energy fluctuations are interfering with the radio waves, hindering all progress to locate them. Over," Red Robin spoke, sighing deeply at the setback.
"Acknowledged. We're resting here for a few minutes and then we'll continue our search before nightfall strikes. Over."
"Copy that, Superman. Over and out."
"It seems that the odds of finding Zulu-1 are against us," the sergeant spoke as he approached the heroes. "Could it be that they disappeared near the object rather than in these parts of the woods and we had been searching the wrong place the whole time?"
"I'm not sure," Superman replied. "But it's starting to look that way."
"Uh, guys?" Zatanna spoke, looking at Superman and Hawkgirl. "Have any of you seen Beast Boy?"
"What? He's not here?" Hawkgirl replied, surprise evident on her face. "I thought he was with you girls. Where could he have gone now?"
Superman looked at Hawkgirl in the eye and opened his mouth to speak. However, before he could answer her question, a hawk screeched in the vicinity, prompting everyone to look up. Its green feathers, beak and talons indicated that it was Beast Boy, as well as how he flew low on the ground and morphed back into his human form, panting deeply from flying too much.
"Beast Boy, where were you?" Zatanna asked, walking towards him. "We were getting worried that something might've-"
"I found them," Beast Boy interrupted, still panting as he sat on a rock.
"What? You mean, you found the missing soldiers?" the sergeant asked Beast Boy. Once the young hero nodded in confirmation, he stepped aside and spoke with his superior in his communicator. After a few seconds of exchanging information, the sergeant approached him and asked, "Do you know their location?"
"Yes," Beast Boy said.
"Then we should move now before the Sun goes down," Superman said.
Everyone nodded at his statement and lifted themselves up from the ground to continue their search. The team marched towards the forest once more, this time in the direction that brought them near the object. Beast Boy told Superman, Hawkgirl, Red Robin and the sergeant that he encountered a medical officer in a clearing near a large fragment of the object after he decided to fly below the trees since he couldn't see anything on the ground from above. He also told them that said location was filled with a 'dark and bright flora' and that the sunlight in there was 'opaque', forcing him to adjust his eyesight upon landing on the ground. When they reached said clearing, they noted that the flora was indeed dark and bright, and that the sunlight's brilliance had been replaced into a gloom mist, illuminated by the constant sparks of lightning emanated by the object and by the flora around them. But what got everyone worked up was the sense of danger that the forest seemed to emit, as if it wanted to corrupt them. Therefore, they remained at high alert for anything suspicious around them.
After minutes of walking around, they finally stumble upon the clearing Beast Boy described earlier and saw that there was a medical officer attending two wounded soldiers, one being a woman whose arms had burn marks and the other a man with a bone sticking right out of his left leg. The rescue team set up a perimeter around the area as the sergeant and the heroes approached the officer who was handling a portion of gauze in his hands.
"Sergent Nevio! Dieu merci, vous êtes arrivé maintenant! [Sergeant Nevio! Thank God you arrived now!]" the officer spoke, feeling relieved that someone came to rescue them.
The sergeant kneeled next to the officer and spoke, "Vous devez faire partie de Zulu-1, non? [You must be part of Zulu-1, right?]" The officer nodded and the sergeant continued, "Où est le reste de votre équipe? Où est Zulu-2? Que leur est-il arrive? [Where's the rest of your team? Where's Zulu-2? What happened to them?]"
The officer told them that both teams were investigating the woods when, out of blue, they received a signal from somewhere near in the vicinity. Upon reaching one of the larger fragments of the object, the signal was gone and were ambushed by several unknown hostile life-forms accompanied by strange machinery that, according to what he saw, 'empowered the enemy' by rubbing their aura-like energy on them. The officer also told them that his comrades' corpses were savagely mutilated and that the enemy had weapons that had unequivocal tracking capabilities, rendered them cloaking devices, inflicted severe injuries, and made lots of damage towards an impact area. This put everyone deeply on edge than before.
"Damn it," the sergeant spoke, clenching his fist in anger for himself. "We were too late to save them."
"We're sorry for your loss," Superman spoke, putting a hand on the sergeant's shoulder. He then looked at Hawkgirl and said, "It's best to inform Captain Walcott what happened down here."
"Understood," Hawkgirl replied. She tapped her communicator and spoke, "Hawkgirl to Eagle Outpost. We found three surviving members of Zulu-1, but... as for the remainder of their unit and Zulu-2 as well... they didn't make it. We're awaiting instructions. Over."
"(static)"
"Eagle Outpost? Eagle Outpost, can you hear me? Come in!"
"What's going on?" Superman asked.
"I can't raise the outpost on the comms. We must be out of range."
"This happen to us," the officer spoke in broken English. He jogged towards the heroes quickly and continued, "They block transmission and kil-"
A straight, blue projectile cut off the officer and hit him in the head, killing him instantly on the spot. Everyone turned their heads towards the direction of the projectile and saw a four-armed creature wielding what resembled a rifle gun. It wore some type of helmet, robe and armor that carried the colors red and white, though it was covered in reddish-purple blood, most likely from the wound in its chest. The creature hissed and growled repeatedly before raising his weapon in the air and bellowed deeply, its eyes glowing in menacing blue at them. Beast Boy noticed this and thought of it, not long enough as several creatures of the same species appeared out of nowhere and snapped him from his mind. Some had a different type of rifle, others had mysterious pistols, and the remainder of them only had daggers and swords that emitted electricity on their blades. They quickly surrounded the team on all sides and opened fire.
The soldiers began shooting back at the creatures after taking defensive positions behind some trees and rocks on the ground. Superman grabbed a tree and placed himself in front of the survivors while Zatanna summoned a protective stave around them before joining the fight. Hawkgirl and Bumblebee flew towards the creatures and fought them head-on with Beast Boy keeping any of them at bay in his griffin form out in the open. At first, they were heavily outnumbered as more and more kept coming–either dropping off from the top of the trees or coming out of invisible cloaks–, but as minutes passed by, they were getting the upper hand. Two soldiers were shot down while a third one dissipated into oblivion when one of the creatures threw an exploding device at a tree and made volts of blue lightning.
"Don't let up! We're close to beating them!" Hawkgirl shouted, pummeling her sword at one of them and her mace at another.
"I wouldn't count victory yet!" Zatanna said, throwing a boulder forward with her magick. "Here comes a big one now!"
At her remark, a round-shaped object came out of the woods alongside another one of the creatures, the latter being taller than the others. The former emanated a purple aura that seemed to shield the enemy from bullets and other things that were used as weaponry. The object appeared to be a sentient machine when it made several whirring noises towards the remaining creatures, as if it was speaking to them. Again, Beast Boy heard this and didn't have a second to think about it when a projectile hit him in his left arm, forcing him to morph back into his human form. He held his arm where the wound was inflicted and dodged behind a rock as the machine fired a blast of purple energy at him through a part that resembled an eye. Superman noticed the altercation and super-sped towards the machine, breaking it with a strong punch in the process.
"Thanks, dude! It almost had me!" Beast Boy spoke, standing next to him.
"No problem, kid," Superman replied. "But it's not over yet."
As Superman said that, the tall creature drew four swords from his robe and teleported towards the soldiers, taking them by surprise and killing them swiftly. One by one they were picked as they couldn't react in time and dodge away from its reach until Bumblebee intercepted and zapped the creature with her stingers, though her charges were deflected by an invisible blue shield at its body. She dodged the blades three times before being grabbed in the throat and thrown into a tree. Zatanna pushed the creature away from the team with her telekinetic ability as Hawkgirl fought it fiercely, hitting ferociously at the shield before it dissipated. The creature stumbled back and teleported behind Hawkgirl, knocking her out with a bash in the head by using the hilt of one of its swords and throwing her towards Zatanna, knocking her out as well with a kick in the face. Superman and Beast Boy saw the girls getting beaten and the former once more super-sped towards the creature. However, before he could land a hit to the enemy, it teleported on his right side and planted a device on his hip that charged volts of lightning around his body, leaving him crying in agony before receiving an elbow to the face and knocking him down in the process.
Beast Boy ran towards the creature and morphed into a bull in an attempt to ram it down with his horns, to which the latter thwarted off by grabbing both horns with its upper set of arms and lifted his body with the lower set and throwing him into the ground. Beast Boy quickly turned into a monkey and landed on his feet before changing into a tiger and began attacking with his claws. He missed five times the enemy until he managed to wound it in the chest, his claws penetrating the armor and cutting the skin beneath it, drawing blood on his robe. The creature hissed in pain and swung his swords towards the young hero's head a minute too late, for as Beast Boy dodged the lethal blow faster and shifted into a gorilla, where he managed to land several punches into its body and pushed it far away from the other heroes, falling and skidding into the trunk of a nearby tree where two of its lesser companions got him up from the ground. By this point, both of them were panting from their fight and looked each other in the eyes without backing down.
The tall creature growled and hissed, moving his arms back and forth and waving its swords menacingly at him while assimilating a protective stance in front of its companions. Beast Boy observed its movement and realized that the creature was speaking to him in its native tongue. He positioned himself in a combat stance and spoke, "I don't know what it is that you want or why you're here, but you seriously picked the wrong guys to mess with!"
Beast Boy charged at the creature in his buffalo form as the latter followed suit. It teleported behind him and swung its blades towards his chest, missing a few inches as Beast Boy dodged the attack once more and morphed into a kangaroo, landing a few quick punches at its face and a powerful kick into its shoulders, making the creature roll out of the way and lose grip on all its blades. It stood up from the ground abruptly and growled deeply, its eyes glowing more menacing than before. The creature tossed several explosive devices into the trees, creating a smoke screen of discharged electric energy that nullified Beast Boy's heightened senses in the process. It then teleported around him several times, effectively landing hard blows on his torso, face and sides before grabbing his legs and sent him flying around the field. Beast Boy landed on a rock with his back and let out a pained yelp, collapsing on the ground with a hand holding his back as he winced in tremendous pain. He tried to get back on his feet, but the creature jumped towards him and grabbed him by the throat, its grasp tightening with every breath he took.
The creature growled and laughed as Beast Boy struggled to escape its hold, an effort that bore no fruit as the former slammed him to the ground and pulled a knife from his robe, aiming it where the heart is. At this, Beast Boy began to panic and started to think on a way to get out of the situation he found himself in. Then it dawned on him. He knew that it was something he vowed never to do when he started being a hero and only doing it if he was in a dire situation. Unfortunately for his sane judgement, this was a dire situation where he was about to die, so he pushed the thought aside and let his instincts take over.
Before the knife struck home, Beast Boy shifted into a cobra and slithered his way out of the creature's hold and into its upper right arm, plunging his fangs at the exposed skin and delivering the poison into its bloodstream. The creature hissed and tried to grab him once more, whereas Beast Boy moved into its left lower arm and spat venom into its two right eyes, causing the former to screech in pain as the venom began to cloud said area of the face. Beast Boy turned into a hummingbird and flew a few feet away as he changed into a deer and rammed the creature into a tree, plunging a few antlers into its body. The remaining lesser creatures scattered from the area into the woods as the taller creature let out a dying screech and succumbed to its wounds.
Beast Boy changed back to his human form and panted, moving away from the creature's lifeless corpse and helping his teammates to stand up–the first one being Zatanna all the way to Bumblebee being the last–as well as the remaining soldiers of the rescue team. Once the area had been secured again, he fell on his knees and held his left arm tightly, wincing as the pain returned with full force after fighting the taller creature on his own.
"You gonna be okay?" Bumblebee asked, lifting him from the ground and walking slowly towards Zatanna, whom began assessing his wounds.
"Yeah," Beast Boy said, still grimacing in pain. "It's nothing serious, really. You don't have to worry about me."
"Hate to break it to ya, kid, but you're not fooling anyone here," Hawkgirl interjected, rubbing one hand on her head while picking up both of her weapons with the other. "That arm needs to be looked at immediately."
Beast Boy pouted at her and said, "I'm telling you, I don't need-"
"Heads up, everyone! I'm hearing a few choppers nearby!" Superman spoke, getting everyone's attention as he levitated himself from the ground.
"Yeah, and I bet those things are hearing it too," Zatanna said. "We should move before-"
Her words were cut off as more creatures came out of the woods and blocked their escape route, heavily outnumbering them this time and pointing their guns at them in the process. The remaining soldiers lifted their guns at them as well, either side daring to fire first against the other. Superman and Hawkgirl floated on top of them, with Zatanna standing between the soldiers and Bumblebee, while the latter held Beast Boy's right arm through her shoulders and kept him in a protective stance. The creatures growled and hissed as if they were proclaiming another skirmish to them, a thought that sent chills down to Beast Boy's spine.
Then, it happened. His senses made his hair stand on edge as they alarmed him that danger was about to come not from their front view, but from behind. Following his instincts, he gathered whatever strength he had left and pushed Bumblebee from his side quickly as he turned and faced their immediate attacker. However, before he could retaliate, a blade was plunged into his chest, forcing him to fall on the ground and cough for air as a pool of blood began to form around him. Beast Boy looked up and saw that the taller creature he fought moments ago was actually alive and loomed on top of him, putting a foot on his back and squeezing him tightly on his spine.
"BEAST BOY!" Bumblebee shouted, her face filled with horror as she witnessed what was happening after turning towards him. Superman, Hawkgirl and Zatanna gasped as they turned around while the soldiers looked back briefly in shock before returning their sights to the lesser creatures and shooting them once more. Hawkgirl flew towards the taller creature and swung her mace to its head with brute force that pulverized it in pieces and sprayed blood all over. It made a dying shriek as its body spewed a white-gaseous-like substance in the air and fell thunderously on the ground, removing its weight on Beast Boy's back in an instant. Zatanna summoned another barrier around them and siphoned a healing aura on Beast Boy while Bumblebee and Superman aided the soldiers in their fight. They were almost completely overrun until reinforcements arrived in the area, firing missiles to the enemy and deploying more troops on the ground. The creatures screeched and hissed around until the majority of them wounded up dead and the rest fled the area for good.
Three helicopters hovered in the air with their searchlights illuminating the forest around them while one of them landed in the clearing next to the heroes. Its compartment doors slid open and revealed Red Robin standing alongside the captain they met back in the camp hours ago. Both of them got out of the transport and jogged quickly to the others, the former headed to his allies and the latter to his fellow troopers before ordering everyone to head back to outpost at once.
Red Robin inspected Beast Boy's wound quickly and spoke, "We need to get him to the Watchtower immediately!"
"Understood," Superman said, "But can you be able to patch him up while we take him to the Medical Bay?"
"I'll try my best here but, you have to know, there's not much I can do to stop the bleeding with a deep wound like this in his chest. The only thing that's keeping him alive for now is Zatanna's healing aura around him, and that's not enough to heal him completely. We have to act now if we are going to save him."
"I'm on it," Hawkgirl responded. "In the meantime, you three go with him while Superman and I finish up down here with the soldiers."
Zatanna said yes to her and Bumblebee nodded in response. Hawkgirl tapped into her communicator spoke, "Hawkgirl to Watchtower. We need an emergency teleportation this instant. Beast Boy's down. I repeat, Beast Boy's down. Advise all medical personnel in the Med Bay and alert the Flash to standby near the teleporters; Red Robin, Zatanna and Bumblebee will tag along as well. Over."
"This is the Watchtower. Acknowledged. Fixating on your coordinates and designating warp translocation in 3... 2... 1... 0."
Specks of light surrounded the younger heroes as their bodies began to shift into the transcendental energy before disappearing in an instant. Seconds later, they completely left Earth and reached the Watchtower, leaving Superman and Hawkgirl to aid the surviving soldiers and reinforcements back to the Outpost. Both heroes knew that the process would be a slow one, so they moved faster before twilight arrived.
By the time they were finished, nightfall has fallen on the mountainous region of the Grisons Canton and the 11th Mechanized Brigade has quarantined the forests surrounding the villages from being accessible to civilians. The captain movilized the 11th Armored Engineer Battalion to set up barriers around and told the two Leaguers that he'll inform to General Felix and the Federal Council about the attack at once. They both nodded and said farewell to him, walking towards the Javelin and flying away to the Watchtower. They thought this would be the end of the matter and returned to their ordinary routine of keeping the world safe.
But little did anyone know, there was a third party involved.
Not far away from the clearing, a mysterious figure watched the whole skirmish on top of a cliff near the object. The figure lifted themselves up after collecting an immense amount of combat information regarding the creatures with the soldiers and heroes and left the area, merging to the darkness as one of the creatures stood next to him without a robe and teleported away as well.