The Air National Guard got airborne eleven minutes after the first wave. The Starros hit the jets like living shrapnel, throwing themselves into intakes until the turbines screamed and died. A formation of F-16s came apart in the air, trailing smoke. The first ejection seats fired into a sky that was raining monsters. Shayera saw the first parachute bloom and the crimson shapes trailing.
She flew towards him as fast as she could. With her shoulder, she crashed a Starro that was aiming towards the pilot's face before catching him from under his arms. Carter was behind her, his mace sweeping in arcs to keep the rest of the Starro's away as she dropped him on a nearby roof.
"Find cover and keep your helmet on at all times," she told the pilot.
The pair flew back up into the air, catching falling pilots and keeping them safe. Then the transport came in. It was a C-130, and two of its engines were dead. It was nose-diving towards a crowded avenue.
"That's a hundred thousand pounds," said Carter.
"Then we'd better be strong," Shayera replied.
She hit the underside of the nose. Her wings flared. Her arms shook and her teeth clenched. He slid under the tail, his shoulder against the empennage, grunting. Together they dragged the nose up inch by inch.
"The interstate is closed. Get us to the interstate!" gasped Shayera.
"I've landed bigger things in worse places," replied Carter, gritting through his teeth.
They placed the C-130 on the empty asphalt in a shriek of tearing metal and sparks. It skidded across the ground, then shuddered and stopped. The crew spilled out of the side hatch. Shayera gasped for breath, her chest heavy. Carter landed besides her and looked at her with a grin.
"We're quite good at this," Carter said.
"Don't say things like that during an alien invasion," she replied.
"Have you been training more than usual? I don't think I've ever seen you that strong before?" Carter asked.
"Let's say I've had a lot of annoyance in my life recently," she answered.
A funnel formed above them, hundreds of Starros spiraling in a crimson tornado.
"Split up! You guys stay in the aircraft!" Shayera yelled at Carter and the crew.
The two jumped into the air and flew in opposite directions. The swarm split into two uneven groups. The larger swarm chased after Shayera while the smaller swarm slammed against the aircraft. The glass of the small circle windows and the front of the airship slowly cracked under the pressure.
"They want me. Keep the crew safe. I'll draw the rest away," she said.
"That's not..."
"Just do it!"
She wove between buildings, pulling the funnel of Starros away from the others. They came at her wings first. They clustered themselves on her wings, locking them together. She started to descend.
She crashed through a bus shelter and came up in a crouch with the mace grinding across the ground. Hundreds of them surrounded her. She stood in the middle, blood streamed on her cheek from a small cut. Her mace came around in a crushing arc, the first wave bursting into pieces.
"Shayera, everyone is safe. Where are you?" Carter asked through the comms.
"A metro station two blocks east," she replied.
"I'm on my way."
"Hurry up, then."
He reached her as fast as he could, diving through the swarm like a falling star. His mace crashed through the Starros before he landed beside her. His wings spread wide.
Shayera pivoted left while Carter was sweeping right. When Carter dropped his guard, Shayera swung her mace in the gap, crushing the Starros. She ducked, and he swung over her head. The two fought together in the same rhythm they had learned over centuries of fighting together. When the last Starro burst, the two of them stood back to back, both breathing hard.
A Starro the size of a serving platter came out of the metro entrance. It launched towards Shayera's face. She saw it closing in and raised her mace, but her arm couldn't lift it after so much fighting. Her body was spent, and she hadn't had a breather the entire time.
Carter turned around. He moved towards it, his mace grinding across the ground before lifting into the air in a full swing. He wasn't fast enough.
The air folded.
Sophist was standing between her and the creature, his black wings spread out wide. He didn't raise his hand or weapon. He simply stood and stared the Starro down with a grin across his face. The Starro slammed across his face with a wet crack. He went still and then boneless, straight onto his back across the ground.
"SOPHIST!" she screamed.
She didn't know why it hurt. He was a man that put her through hell and back, dragging her grief into the daylight, and called it a gift. Yet he had just stepped between her and the Starro. She threw herself across the pavement and slid to her knees beside him. She tried to pull the Starro off, but its strength was too much for her. Sophist rose his hand shakily and gave her a thumb-up before his hand fell back to the ground.
Shayera thought he was fighting it.
"Fight it!" she yelled at him, grabbing his shoulder. "Listen to me. Don't listen to that big fucking starfish. You hold on," she continued.
Mike could hear Shayera scream at him to fight it. Under the starfish he was perfectly fine. It landed onto his mind, but it couldn't enter, thanks to his immunity, gifted from the Curator.
"Sophist! Stay with me!" she yelled, shaking him.
He stayed flat on the ground. He could get up if he wanted to, but seeing how she was screaming her heart out, he thought it would be less embarrassing if he just pretended.
Carter limped up beside her. "Is he..."
"He's holding on."
"I don't understand."
"Neither do I... Help me move him," she said.
They dragged Sophist into the overturned bus, one arm each, to keep him safe.
Across the city J'onn had stopped giving directions because he was in a different world. The city of Ma'aleca'andra rose before him whole and unburned. The living stone catching the light.
"A ghost of Mars," said a voice, coming from everywhere. It was layered with thousands of voices, human and non-human. "I can see your mind, Martian. It is pathetic. You crawl through your self-pity and debris of a dead world, weeping for long-lost souls. How exhausting it must be to exist in pieces."
"My name is J'onn J'onzz, not 'Martian'. I will not allow you to turn Earth into another graveyard. I can feel the vast ocean of minds you have silenced. I will free them," he replied.
Starros laugh boomed through J'onn's mind.
"You misunderstand. Look into my eye," it replied.
The Martian sky split open, and behind it a large eye appeared that glared down on J'onn. Behind its eye was a hundred galaxies.
"Feel them. There is only harmony. No war. No grief. We have all become one. I have gifted hundreds of galaxies unity and access to knowledge so vast, your own is a speck of dust compared to it. I offer them completion. I offer prosperity," it told him.
"You offer them a hollow shell," J'onn retorted, pushing against the mental weight Starro pushed onto him. "Unity without choice is a prison."
"Choice is a design flaw of lesser species. Submit to me and I'll give you all a sanctuary. You no longer need to be so alone. Your few can become a part of something so much grander. Your species was evolving to become like us. I offer you what you all would've become," it replied.
"You're wrong about us. You're wrong about all of us. You think grief is a flaw because you are the lesser species. You are from a bygone era, Starro. While you stayed stagnant, the species of the future have outgrown you, but your arrogance stops you from seeing the truth. Your era is over," J'onn replied.
J'onn sent a wave of psychic energy across his mind. The world of Mars burned away like paper in a fireplace. J'onn opened his eyes back to the real world. The pulse pulsed a green gold from his forehead. It crossed the sky and then the main body of Starro. He severed the thread that tied the Starros to the main body.
Every Starro froze. The chaos that had gone on for hours had finally come to a stop. The severed link was already trying to knit itself back together. J'onn's body was shaking from the effort. He fell to his knees and held his forehead, which ached.
"I bought us some time. Let's end this now, before it reconnects," J'onn told everyone, a voice in their minds.