Superman swept through a cluster of Starros, carving his heat vision in lethal arcs, but this time they scattered, breaking into evasive spirals.
"I think they're learning?" said Superman.
"The central intelligence is giving more commands. It's updating the hivemind based on what it experiences," Batman replied.
Wonder Woman carved a clean path through a cluster with her sword and shield when she found herself surrounded from all directions. Diana slammed her bracelets together, a golden shockwave pulverizing the surrounding hoard.
Batman found himself on the top floor of a building trying to rescue a trapped civilian. The building below him came down. He dropped through two collapsing floors, using his grapple to arrest his fall as much as possible. He landed hard on the debris. The civilian made it safely to his jet, but the Starros converged onto him.
He threw a set of explosive batarangs in a spread, buying himself enough time to reload his grapple. He hauled himself up through the building, the Starros chasing after him.
"Batman, status?" Superman asked.
"Busy," he replied.
He fropped a smoke bomb, using the cover to reposition. He dashed out, taking out eight more Starros with his batarang throws, but their numbers kept on coming, pouring through.
Batman set a tripwire, angled to collapse the remaining ceiling onto the bulk of the swarm. He turned to retreat through a gap when a Starro dropped from above him, too close and too fast. The creature was already about to connect to his exposed face.
Superman's hand closed around, two inches from Batman's face, crushing it with ease.
"I had it," Batman said.
"I don't doubt that... We should get moving," Superman replied
"I was already moving," Batman replied.
"Sure you were," Superman replied.
"... Thank you."
Superman smiled.
The League converged on the city's central plaza within minutes of each other. Diana was in the center, her sword cutting arcs of Starros, wave after wave, while using her bracelets to block any that came too close.
Green Arrow was on her flank, his bow singing in rapid succession, killing any Starro that managed to sneak through.
Hawkgirl and Hawkman were in a rhythm, with their backs against each other. They swung their maces in turns. A Starro slipped past her guard, but he was there to crush it. A cluster tried to flank him from above, and with her wings, Shayera scattered them.
Above them, Hal Jordan and John Stewart stopped their contest and combined their constructs into a joint effort to create a dome.
"Dome's holding, but we can't extend it to cover the whole evacuation route," said Hal.
"Then we collapse it tighter and focus on the civilians. I trust everything will be fine here?" said John.
"Go, we'll manage," said Superman.
Superman had pulled back from the group to sweep a massive cluster that would have added too much pressure. He let out his heat vision and spun around, and then he heard a voice. One screaming for help.
He rushed towards the voice, using his strength to hurl the rubble away to rescue her.
"It's alright. Take my hand," he said to her.
The women listened, and when Superman gently pulled her up, he looked at her face.
"So naive," it said, a Starro coming from her dress and landing on Clark's face.
His body turned rigid. He turned in the air in a slow and mechanical way, revealing his face to the rest of the league.
"Clark?" said Wonder Woman, looking at him.
He didn't answer. In a second he rushed through the air, his fists held out in front of him as they met Diana's bracelets. The shockwave rippled across the plaza, cracking concrete in a ten-foot radius. She skidded backwards as Superman continued to push.
"He's compromised," said Batman.
"No kidding," replied Diana, rolling clear of an uppercut that was followed by a loud draft.
Hal's ring flared, constructing heavy and thick restraints that wrapped around Clark's hands and arms, while John created a set of sackles around his ankles that was anchored to the ground. Superman stared for only a few seconds before he snapped his arms free. He broke his chains with his hands and didn't slow down.
"We can't overpower him or take that thing off his face. We need to think of a different approach," Batman said.
Superman charged at Diana again with his fists leading. Hawkgirl intercepted. She knew it was a dumb idea, but Diana was recovering from the first blow, and a hoard of Starros was hoaning in on her.
Superman's fist connected with her mace, and then his other with her face, the force sending through the building to her left, concrete and glass exploding outward in a cloud on the other side.
"Shayera!" yelled Carter, who chased after her without hesitation.
Flash tried next, rushing into him with a fist from multiple directions and immense momentum. In a matter of seconds he already hit over a dozen times, but on the fourteenth he Superman slightly grazed him, but the force was enough to send him skidding into and tumbling until a car stopped him.
"I have an idea, but I'll need a little time," said J'onn.
"We can try," replied Hal.
J'onn reached out to Superman with his mind. He drove his consciousness into his. At first he found resistance, a suffocating darkness. Starro was trying to keep him out, but the connection was weak due to time, and Superman's own mind was still fighting back.
He experienced what it was like on the other side just recently, but this was the first time he ever forced himself into the mind of someone else. He searched and came across a farmhouse. It was so warm and gentle. A beloved memory, but on the far side of the farm, the fields turned into red tendrils that grew and grew.
He needed to go deeper.
Outside in the physical world, Diana dashed, placing herself between Superman and Flash with her lasso, trying to loop it around Clark's wrists, but the attempt ended in failure.
"Kal-El, no!" yelled Diana.
Hal shifted his constructs into obstacles from giant hands and barriers to buy time.
Hawkman cradled Shayera, who was battered and breathing heavily. He set her down gently.
"Stay down," he told her.
"Don't be stupid like me," she replied.
"I'm just going to buy some time," responded Carter before going airborne.
J'onn pressed harder into Clark's mind, where he found a dark space with what seemed like a string. A string of his consciousness, one side blue and the other red, with the red slowly consuming the blue. He followed the red string until he found its source. It felt like hours of wandering,, but when he reached it, he found a large eye that glared at him.
"I thought the Martians went extinct," it told J'onn.
"They needed someone to remember them," he replied. His eyes glowed red, and he beamed at the eye.
Superman's movement stuttered, his hand grasping at a cracked green shield that surrounded Hal. His hands rose towards his face before he tore the creature from his face.
"J'onn? Was that..." he said.
"Yes. A trick I learned recently," he replied.
"Thank you," Clark replied.
"You would have done the same," said J'onn.
"Not sure I can do what you just did," replied Clark with a small smile.
Every Starro that was attached to a host stopped, and then all at once, they turned towards J'onn.
"That's freaky," said Flash.
"It recognizes J'onn as its main threat," said Batman.
"MARTIAN," they said before they all rushed towards him.