“It’s them!” J’onn managed to say before they started firing at them. Batman had already jumped out of the way behind an overturned tank while Superman was blasted away by the bright red light the alien’s handheld weapon fired. Superman was flung into the side of the military truck, denting the steel wall.

Out of Batman’s hiding place, a Batarang flew out before exploding right in front of the shapeshifters. The explosion was worth several kilograms of dynamite. It took a few of their assailants out, but there were just too many for it to be a significant loss in numbers.

They had already surrounded them and approached Batman from behind. J’onn warned him as he phased through Batman’s body and tanked a shot while being covered in psychic energy.

J’onn, still too weakened by his imprisonment, slumped helplessly to the ground because of the strain it put on him. Batman knocked their assailant out with a normal Batarang before supporting J’onn to stand.

Superman quickly covered the two with a tank as a shield as they ran to the batwing. Batman quickly threw J’onn onto the backseat and started the jet. As soon as they could, they flew away, with Superman following them.

However, before they could take a breather, they were followed by several squadrons of alien starships, roughly triangular flying craft, firing red laser beams at them.

Batman knew that, though a high-tech aerial combat prototype, it wouldn’t be able to withstand a single direct hit from alien spaceships, so without fanfare he dodged the attacks while trying to escape.

The shots hit the mountains as Batman tried to shake them off in the terrain, which resulted in explosions that were destroying anything they hit.

Just before a squadron was able to catch up to the batwing, Superman flew right through the foremost spaceship, destroying it in the process.

The resulting explosion made the other spaceships dodge in different directions. They decided to split off as part of them continued their pursuit while the others fought off Superman.

One spaceship got a lucky shot blasting the Superhero out of the air and into a mountain, burying him underneath tons of rubble in the process.

With Superman distracted, the invaders were able to catch up to the Batwing, getting a lucky shot as their shot sliced through the left wing of the jet, causing it to plummet to the ground.

Just as it was only a few dozen meters away from the ground, the Batwing’s descent was stopped. 

“What happened?” Batman asked as he looked out of his plane to see a green transparent light shield covering his sight.

“Help has arrived,” J’onn answered knowingly.

The unknown help was bombarded with shots but was quickly saved by another ally. A woman with wings and a mace, which was covered in lighting, smashed the light beams away before destroying several spaceships with a single swing each.

“Hawkgirl? What is she doing here?” Batman asked as his plane was safely dropped to the ground. He got no answer from J’onn as he phased through the jet and flew into the sky, joining the Green Lantern, John Stewart. The two were quickly joined by Hawkgirl and Superman.

They didn’t exchange any pleasantries before they split up again to smash every spaceship; they were able to reach.

They made quick work of each spaceship, but there were too many of them and with a seemingly everlasting swarm around them, they were slowly being overrun. Just after Hawkgirl destroyed two ships with one attack, she was blasted from behind.

She slid across the side of a mountain before crashing and stopping at another mountain’s face.

She lost her weapon and plummeted to the protrusion of the mountain’s face. Fortunately, she was tough and was easily able to survive the otherwise lethal attack and fall.

Just as another barrage of shots headed her way, a woman shielded her from the attacks and reflected them with her metal bracers.

A reflected light beam shot back at the aggressor, destroying it, and making it plummet right at the two. Before the two were crushed by the ship, John Stewart covered them in a green, spheric shield.

“Who is the rookie in the tiara?” The Green Lantern asked Superman, who was disposing of another ship.

“I am not sure. I thought she was with you?”

They didn’t have enough time to talk, as they were quickly surrounded by several spaceships that were filling up the gaps in their ranks.

“This might take a while,” Superman said to the little group that had gathered. His eyes widened as his focus shifted from the starships to the light behind them. Out of nowhere, the sky was suddenly covered in a bright blue light that expanded like a net being cast out.

The light spread out like individual strings weaving through the air. They were similar to the starships attacks, just that they were behaving like honing missiles that instantly pierced through most of the spaceships, destroying them in the process.

It took just a few seconds after that wide-fanned-out attack appeared and made quick work of anything it touched.

The group looked at each other in surprise before they headed to the Batwing on the ground to gather.

As they went down, a red blur headed towards the same place. As Superman and the others landed, they heard a voice call out to Batman.

“Hey, Bats!” The red blur came to a stop next to the batwing holding up the wing that was cut off and had caused the jet to drop to the ground like a rock.

“I think you dropped this.” The flash said with a smirk on his face. He handed it over to Batman as he saw Superman and, more importantly, the woman with the tiara, land in front of them.

“Woah… where have you been all my life?” Flash said, obviously impressed with what he saw.

“Themyscira.” The woman answered, oblivious to Flash’s flirt attempt.

“Huh?” Flash uttered. Superman hadn’t heard of the place either, so he could understand his confusion.

“The home of the Amazon.” Hawkgirl interjected as she landed next to them with J’onn J’onnz, “I always thought it was merely a legend.”

“I assure you. It is as real as the ground on which we stand. I am Diana, Princess of the Amazons.” Diana said with a slight smile on her face, happy to talk about her homeland.

“Pinch me, I must be dreaming,” Flash said dreamily as he looked at Diana, which earned him an elbow in his side from Superman.

“Themyscira is protected by the gods, but I could not idly stand by when the rest of the world was in danger.”

“It was lucky that you showed up when you did.” Superman said, but was quickly denied by J’onn.

“No, not luck. I telepathically summoned them.”

“Look, I am usually quick on the uptake, but could someone please tell me what the heck is going on here?” Flash stepped forward, clearly confused about the situation and it wasn’t just him. Apart from Superman and Batman, the others had no clue what they were getting involved in.

The others turned towards the alien in question. “Before I tell you, we should wait for the last person I had summoned to join us.”

As if they had staged it, Superman heard a whoosh sound before a familiar man dropped from the sky, slowing down only a meter above the ground. He gently touched down with crossed arms as he scrutinized the group in front of him.

A green semi-transparent monocle covered his left eye. Superman instantly recognized him as the young man dating his cousin. Superman had researched him a bit after their first encounter and Nathan, or Shallot – as he was called by the police- was a good man.

He couldn’t find fault with him and was quite relieved that someone like him, a hero, dated his cousin. Superman had a favorable impression of him.

So, although Nathan, with his few active months, could be considered a rookie among the group of which every individual had been a vigilante for years already, Superman was glad to see him here. Besides, with Diana around, he wasn’t even the one with the least experience around.

“Did you fire those attacks just now?” Batman asked Nathan with barely noticeably narrowed eyes and Superman had a hunch why Batman spoke up.

In the media about Portland, everything that was shown of him, even though heroically speaking impactful, weren’t impressive feats. Everyone knew he was strong, but unlike Superman, Nathan could be seen wounded regularly.

Superman knew Nathan was strong to the degree that few in the world could keep up with him, but he assumed it was only when he transformed into his giant gorilla appearance. Superman also only now realized that Nathan never wore a belt. That was his tail…

Nathan looked at each individual in the group and a glint of recognition flashed in his eyes as he gazed upon them, before he settled on Batman, who was waiting for an answer.

“Yes. Nice meeting you, too. You can call me Shallot.” Shallot said firmly. His voice and expression were steel-like, unlike the moments Superman had heard him talk to Kara.

“Shallot? As in onion? That’s a lame name.” Flash, unperturbed by Shallot’s attitude, waved his hand in front of his face as if he dismissed the name.

“At least I am not named after something perverts do, Mister Flash.” Shallot retorted as he only glanced in Flash’s direction before turning his attention to J’onn, who nodded back. After all, he had some explaining to do.

Flash was affronted. “Hey! That- that’s not what my name means!”, but no one paid attention to him besides an amused smirk.

The others didn’t talk anymore and waited for J’onn to reveal the identity of earth’s invader.

“I came from Mars to warn you…” J’onn started somberly, “We first encountered them a thousand of your earth years ago. It was a golden age. Our Martian civilization was at the height of its peace and prosperity, but then They arrived.”

Everyone was listening intently as they could already imagine how bad it would get with any invasion of an intelligent enemy, especially since it seemed to have started a long time ago.

“Where they came from, no one knew. But they were determined to make our planet their own. We Martians were peaceful people and the taking of any life was abhorrent to us, but we quickly learned the ways of war. For centuries, the battles raged on. Every trace of our once-great civilization was obliterated. We fought valiantly, but the invaders were parasites that fed on our psychic energy.

As we grew weaker, they grew stronger. They even absorbed our shape-shifting abilities. Finally, a small group of Martian survivors planned one final desperate attack. Inside their underground stronghold, we unleashed a powerful nerve gas which paralyzed them. The attack was successful, but the cost was dear. I was the only survivor. The last of my kind.”

Everyone was listening to the story with bated breath and sympathized with the last Martian. Not long ago, Superman too thought he was the last of his kind, but opposed to J’onn, Superman had family here.

They were all waiting for the Martian to continue his story, except for Nathan, who didn’t seem surprised with what J’onn had to say. Nathan was frowning and stood there with crossed arms as he tapped on his biceps. He seemed awfully impatient. Superman could understand him.

It was clear that he wanted to take action, instead; they were standing here listening to his story. Maybe it was his inexperience, but it was paramount to know as much as one could gather about the enemy, especially when they were attempting to take over the entire world.

“I sealed up their citadel to keep them in a constant state of suspended animation. For over 500 years, I stood guard over them, but then, while I was in a hibernation cycle, astronauts from earth unsealed the stronghold and accidentally revived the invaders.” J’onn finished.

“Wait. Those astronauts never said anything about life on mars.”

John Stewart couldn’t help but snort at that. “Some pencil pusher in Washington probably decided it should be classified information.”

“With all the Martians gone, the invaders had nothing left to feed upon, so they turned their sights to earth. I narrowly escaped and came here to warn of the coming danger. While I was held against my will, the invaders sent advanced agents to disable earth’s defenses.”

“That’s why they sabotaged earth’s Deep Space Monitoring Network. So, we couldn’t detect their activities.” Batman concluded.

“We got to stop them before it’s too late!” The Green Lantern said with resolve. His eyes were glowing green as he clenched his fist.

“It may already be too late.” The Martian said as he looked towards the city. Dark ominous clouds were coming out of nowhere and spread across the sky at concerning speeds, covering the sky above the city up completely.

“What’s that?” Diana asked. Her eyes widened as she looked up at the sky that was brightened with lightning as a storm was brewing inside the dark clouds.

“It had begun,” J’onn said bitterly.

“What are they doing?” They turned towards the one that had already fought the invaders for years. He should know what their goal was. After all, it hadn’t been long since the invaders woke up from their suspended animation. It was doubtful that they had come up with new technology to conquer an entire planet.

“The invaders are nocturnal. They want to block out the sun, so they could live in perpetual darkness.”

With that said, Flash turned to Batman, “Friends of yours?”. Batman was obviously not amused. “It’s no joke.”

Flash ignored the response and approached J’onn. “What’s the big problem? Can’t you just whip up another batch of that nerve gas?”

“Unfortunately, no. The gas can only be made of a rare Martian plant. I brought a sample with me, but it was destroyed while I was captured.”

“Uhh. What’s plan b?” Flash asked the group, or rather the assembled individuals.

“We have to take out these factories.” Diana spoke confidently, despite her being the only true rookie of the individuals present, which was quickly brought up by the Green Lantern.

“Lady, this is no job for amateurs.”

“We Amazons are warriors born. Want to test me?” She said, standing face to face with the slightly smaller man.

“Let’s not fight among ourselves. John, we need all the help we can get.” Superman said, putting his hand on the Green Lantern’s shoulder as he looked at him. This was no time to have any infightings. They had to work together and quickly.

John realized that too, so he relented, though not without a sarcastic remark, “Fine. I’m sorry, your Highness.”

He walked into the middle of the groups to speak to the other present heroes, assuming a commanding tone, using the experience he gathered when he trained with the Green Lantern Corps “Tactically, we have multiple objectives, so we need to split into teams.”

“Dips on the Amazon.” Flash called out as he appeared next to the said woman in a flash. However, John was not having it.

“I can’t have you distracted. You will be coming with me.” John said without giving him room to argue.

Suddenly, a beeping sounded out from Nathan’s monocle. Nathan ignored their looks and tapped on the side of the apparent compact computer on his ear. Symbols Superman had never seen before flashed across the transparent screen.

After Nathan cleared the screen with another press, he then turned to the others and informed the group where more of these cloud-producing factories were sighted, and everyone was quick to decide a direction.

In the end, they were split up with Superman and Hawkgirl in one team, Green Lantern and Flash, Batman and Diana, and J’onn J’onzz with Shallot.

“It will be easier for me to do a lot of damage quickly when I don’t have to worry about casualties. I could just blow their factories up.” Nathan stated when they distributed the factories among them.

Batman, however, was quick to deny his statement as he pointed out the possibility of hostages. They had taken the form of some humans to blend in. Before coming here when he was investigating the invader’s sabotage, he had found the ones the invaders had taken the form of, so it wasn’t unlikely that the invaders had taken more hostages and kept them inside the factories..

“Before you blow anything up, make sure you don’t take anyone with it.” Batman said as he glared at Nathan, who was frowning back. Hawkgirl, Wonder Woman, and J’onn Jonnz didn’t seem too pleased with the news either.

A global invasion always brought casualties with it, but they also agreed on the notion of trying to save everyone they could, which was why they said nothing.

Wonder Woman hadn’t seen Nathan fight before apart from the energy attack a moment ago, but according to his demeanor, she felt he was strong enough to avoid unnecessary casualties while being able to accomplish his tasks.

Although the others knew Nathan was a capable hero, it was clear that the world had been underestimating him and he was a lot stronger than anyone thought he was.

“… Then I will tear it down with my hands, but if you take too long and it appears that the invaders gain a foothold here in America, I will start blasting.”

Nathan concluded as he slowly flew up into the air before disappearing in the direction where his first location was. The others stayed quiet, as it was a reasonable compromise, and they had no time to argue any longer.

Now that everyone had a partner and a location as a goal, they dispersed. Superman had to slow down a bit because he was followed by Hawkgirl, but that didn’t mean the two were moving slowly.

It only took them a few dozen minutes until they had crossed a significant portion of the continent to arrive at their first location.

Fortunately for the heroes, the invaders had taken America as their first foothold, so they would be able to arrive at their location shortly. Thank heavens for small mercies, Superman thought.

The factory stood menacingly underneath the dark clouds as more of their smoke rose up into the air to blot out the sun.

Superman saw the alien tripods shooting lasers into the building and almost incinerating the soldiers that were trying to keep the invaders at bay. He sped up and directly knocked it down. He didn’t know what material these things were made of, but it was fairly resilient.

Hawkgirl was hammering down on the alien tripod, trying to completely smash it into pieces. With her strength and her mace, every hit would cave in the unknown material of the alien vehicle. The ground shook from her hits and it wouldn’t take long for her to turn it into scrap.

Superman, however, ignored the tripod on the ground and focused on what was more urgent than the factory. With a chop, he sliced off a leg of the tripod and used it as a javelin to throw it into the factory. A hole was quickly made for them to go inside.

“Hawkgirl, follow me!” He said as he entered the hole he had just created with Hawkgirl close on his heels.

They landed on some sort of organic-looking pathways that looked like the innards of some organism than of a factory. Even though it looked strange, the factory, fortunately, wasn’t a living creature.

“Keep your sharp eye out.” Superman said as he looked around at the rather empty pathways.

“I always do.” With her mace in hand, she advanced warily.

With no forewarning, a red blast impacted directly next to them. A group of the invaders had already found them and were blasting at them. The walls of the factory seemed to harmlessly absorb the blasts, but that didn’t mean it wouldn’t be effective on the two.

“Stay back! I will-“ Superman shielded Hawkgirl with his body. Just as he was about to counterattack, he heard a yell from behind him as Hawkgirl flew over his body.

“HAA!” She threw herself into the middle of the group and swung her mace at one invader, swiftly taking its head off. She didn’t dwell on anyone and just turned the next one into mush on the wall.

“Woah…” Superman looked at the spectacle of Hawkgirl annihilating the group.

“What? There is a time for words and a time for actions.” She said casually as she continued to wander the halls. Superman looked at her in disbelief before following her.

Her hands clenched the mace in her hands as she looked around with sharp eyes, anticipating the moment another invader arrived in front of them. “We are close by. I can almost smell them.”

“Are you always so eager to fight?” Superman said with a frown on his face.

“My homeworld, Thanagar, is a warlike world. There, one must strike first… or die.” Their little argument was interrupted by a blast.

They turned around and saw a group of invaders disappear behind a wall that seemed to fuse into itself before Hawkgirl had the chance to follow them.

Superman looked into the pathway that they had taken to get there but another wall appeared, caging them into a small room.

The moment the door closed. A fast-working gas was sprayed into the room through several tubes that blended in with the walls. Hawkgirl started coughing as she inhaled the gas that was sprayed directly in her face. She dropped to the ground, holding her throat.

“Hold on Hawkgirl! I will bring us out of here!” Superman plunged his hands into the wall in order to rip it apart, but a strong current was released, shocking the superhero just strong enough to throw him back. He dropped to the ground directly into a cloud of gas.

…

J’onn looked at Shallot, who was hovering above the factory. Shallot just looked at it indifferently. We were in the deep desert, so there was almost no possibility of casualties. So, Nathan raised a finger to manifest pure energy as small as a pebble above his finger before pointing it at the tripodal walkers that were shooting lasers at them.

Unlike the invader’s shots, which were blocked by an invisible sphere around Nathan, his attack wasn’t as harmless.

The energy pebble flew out and increased in size before it quickly crashed into the tripodal walker. The sphere knocked it to the ground and crushed it into the sandstone underneath. A bright explosion followed, completely erasing everything it touched.

The explosion took out a wall of the factory, giving them access to the inside.

J’onn wasn’t unfamiliar with the unreceptive mind of humans, but Shallot’s mind was even more so. It was obvious that it belonged to the mind of a telepath amateur that had built up a crude defense. He wasn’t that skilled with the defensive capabilities of his mind, but that would be fixed quickly if someone pointed some knacks out to him.

Currently, he had wrapped a rigged wall of steel around his mind. It wasn’t the worst defense one could have. It was just not sophisticated or efficient.

If he knew how to properly use his telepathic abilities, he would be the perfect counter for the Imperium. But even without finesse, he already was formidable. One could see that by how effortlessly he used the telekinetic side of his abilities to hold the familiar organic-like wall open as they moved through the halls. It was almost like a walk through the park.

From time to time, he raised his hand and pointed at any soldiers that came our way, only to pointlessly perish under the hail of energy attacks. J’onn only tagged along without needing to do anything.

If the Martian had someone like him, the war wouldn’t have ended with just a comatose sleep for decades. It would have been a genocide. Even though Batman was against it, like some of the other individuals J’onn had summoned, J’onn didn’t share Batman’s view.

In a war, casualties like the few kidnapped humans were tolerable, or even preferable, if it prevented the loss on a much greater scale.

Overall, his strength was high, and his psychic potential could be the deciding factor in this mission. His capabilities for destruction were probably what tipped the scales by a lot. The destruction that he could unleash from afar would be a problem, even for the Imperium.

That was why J’onn wanted to be team up with him, otherwise, he would have chosen Batman. His abilities to sneak around and plan ahead had a lot of potential as well. Just before they entered where the main operating room and therefore the core of the factory lay, they stopped.

They would only need to remove the core of the factory to shut it down, so the destruction of it was nigh. J’onn grasped Shallot’s shoulder and turned him around.

{Before we go inside, I have to tell you something.} J’onn told him telepathically as he looked at the young man. Shallot noticed the telepathic connection and accepted it, letting the two converse.

It broke J’onn to do this to Shallot, but it needed to be done. The weight on his shoulder would be too heavy, but there was no other way around it.

Shallot raised an eyebrow as they looked at each other. Before Shallot could ask, J’onn conveyed his message telepathically.

{I am sorry, but I need you to die…}

…

Surrounded by invaders, Batman had to think quickly. Fortunately, the design of the factory made it clear what the energy source of it was. Without hesitating, he threw out a Batarang. It cut through the air, but before it could reach the core, it was stopped by an invader.

Luckily, it wasn’t a normal Batarang. The explosion instantly enveloped the invader and the core, causing a chain reaction.

However, Batman knew it wouldn’t prevent the invaders from killing them.

“Diana on your right!” A shot fired by the invaders had almost arrived at the back of her head when the injured Martian, J’onn, appeared and pushed her out of the way.