The Thanagarian roared as he held up an Nth metal mace over his head. It arched downward until it finally went into a sidesweep.

Batman ducked under the swing, throwing a counterpunch that rammed into the man's kidney. Electricity sparked from the electrified brass knuckles he wore, delivering additional damage, and caused the Thanagarian to flinch away. Pressing his advantage, the vigilante threw punch after punch, landing gut punch after gut punch into his opponent, forcing him back a step after each and every blow.

The Thanagarian roared then as he performed a sudden backsweep with his mace. Again, Batman ducked it, but before he continued on his offensive, he saw the mace swing back up above the guard's head before it came flying straight down.

Immediately, he darted to one side, leaping into the air. Sticking one foot out, it hit the wall and he ricocheted right off of it, ending up right behind the Thanagarian. Spinning around to keep facing the winged man, Batman shot a hand out to grab onto the side of his helmeted head, latching onto it. Keeping his other hand as a fist, he swung it through the air, slamming it onto the opposite side of the man's head.

And promptly sent thousands of volts into his head.

The Thanagarian went completely stiff as he was shocked, smoke beginning to rise from his body the longer it went on. Batman would have kept it going had he not heard a sound coming from behind him. Jerking his head to one side, he spotted another guard, this one with an Nth metal axe, one that was just beginning to swing at him.

The axe never reached him.

Something broadsided the Thanagarian and he was sent right into a wall. Turning his head, Batman saw a net covering the guard from head to toe, pinning him onto the wall. Electrical currents shocked him over and over, keeping him paralyzed.

The arrows that pinned the net to the wall indicated just who was responsible.

As Batman released his captive, allowing him to collapse to the floor, Black Canary darted by, heading right for yet another guard. This one had what Batman labeled to be a plasma blaster. It was shorter than the plasma rifle with a wider barrel, which allowed for larger plasma blasts. In a hallway like this, it held a distinct advantage.

Canary never let him even use it.

As the Thanagarian took aim at her, the blonde vigilante leapt into the air, going into a flip over the winged man. As she soared over him, she shot her hands down to grab onto either side of his head. Using her momentum, she pulled him backwards, tipping him over and he fell to the floor. Canary landed on her feet, then promptly jumped back up into the air, this time leaning backwards as she held an arm up. She was practically lying horizontally in the air as she dropped down on her opponent, using her elbow to land a pile driver right to his face.

Then for added measure, Green Arrow fired a trick arrow at him, the arrow striking the man on his bare chest. Instantly, a cloud of blue gas erupted, hiding the guard for several seconds. When it dissipated, it revealed a layer of ice covered him, freezing him to the floor.

"You know, I think we need to do these team ups more," Arrow announced as he came to stand next to Batman. "I always get in a great workout."

"That doesn't say very much about Star City," Black Canary called out to him, the blonde already back on her feet.

"Star City doesn't have super strong aliens invading it every other day," he pointed out. "Or pissed off crocodile men in its sewers."

"Sounds boring."

Batman began striding forward, stepping over the shivering Thanagarian on the floor. Behind him were a number of dispatched guards, all in various states of unconsciousness, or entanglement. Their slumped bodies littered the floor. "Keep moving," is all he said as he passed by Canary.

"Roger," Arrow said from behind him. "So where's our next group of oversized chickens?"

Pulling out his palm pilot, the dark-clad man consulted it for a moment. "The hangar—largest group yet."

"They might be expecting us by now," Canary pointed out. "With as much fighting as we've done, they're going to be ready for us."

She wasn't wrong.

Rather than heading for the main doors, the three fighters came across a hallway with holes into them. If memory served right, these were caused by J'onn when he had fought Superman, Green Lantern, and Hawkgirl. The beginning stages of repair were obvious, but the holes hadn't been closed in the slightest.

Faintly, Batman wondered what was taking the rest of the League so long in repairing this place.

There was one hole higher up the wall, one they couldn't reach. Another hole further along was at ground level, and that is where they went.

Black Canary pulled ahead of the two men, sucking in air as she did so. The moment she reached the opening, she turned right into it and unleashed her Canary Cry. The shrill scream made the men wince, even with the ear-protection they wore. It at least made it bearable.

Moving behind the blonde woman, Batman saw the results of her scream. Several Thanagarians had been thrown backwards, each one clutching at their ears. There were a few ships as well, ones that were actually sliding across the floor. Hell, even the paint was beginning to peel on their hulls.

Then came the counterattack.

Plasma beams came flying towards the hole, forcing Batman to grab Canary by her shoulders and pull her out of the way. The two ended up on the other side of the hole just as the beams struck jagged edges of the opening. Some even passed through it at angles, striking the wall opposite.

"Well, we got their attention!" Arrow shouted across from the opening. "Now what?"

Batman peered around the edge to look into the hangar. From his view, he could see Thanagarians trying to position themselves throughout the hangar, firing their plasma rifles for cover.

This was going to be difficult.

Pulling back as he spotted one of the plasma blasts heading his way, it struck the side of the opening he had been peering around. Mentally, the vigilante went over what was left in his belt. He had a few shuriken left, but it wasn't a sure thing any of them could get through the barrage of plasma blasts. Smoke pellets might help, but again, the plasma rifles made it difficult. He did have one more concussion detonator.

He was about to open the pouch he kept the detonator in when he was interrupted. "Open the bay doors," Ace urged him.

Batman froze. "Why?"

"I can sense others outside. Let them in."

Others…Batman wasn't certain who these others were. They could be Green Lanterns, or perhaps rouge Kalanorians. Certainly not the Justice League since they were still on Earth. Yet, Ace wouldn't purposefully put him in a bad situation either.

He was going to have to trust her.

"Arrow, can you hit the manual override for the hangar doors?" he called out.

The Emerald Archer immediately peeked through the hole, glancing around. Then he pulled out an arrow and notched it on his bow. "Watch this."

In quick fashion, the green-clad man pulled the arrow back on the bow string, aimed high, and then fired the arrow.

That seemed like a weird thing to do, but there was a purpose. The arrow flew up through the air until it hit the nearest wall; however, it did not pierce it. Instead it ricocheted off of it, heading up to the ceiling, where it bounced off of it as well. It flew towards one of the Thanagarian ships, changing trajectory the moment it struck. This sent the arrow straight for the manual override, hitting it dead on.

An alarm rang out, slowing the firing of the plasma blasts. The sound of the hangar doors began to open.

"Nailed it," Arrow congratulated himself.

Then came an explosion.

The hallway they were in was rocked by the sudden tremor, cause the three vigilantes to brace themselves on the wall behind them. Again, Batman peered through the hole.

There, hovering in front of the open hangar doors, was a small ship of Tamaranean design.

"Ace, did you just have me open the damn doors for the Tamaraneans?"

The plasma cannons on the Tamaranean ship fired again, striking one of the parked Thanagarian ships. Another explosion rang out, sending another tremor throughout the Watchtower. Thanagarians not caught up in the blasts were scrambling for cover, clearly not concerned with the three Justice League members.

That was when the Tamaranean ship, along with a few more flew into the hangar, landing in a defensive formation. Thanagarians were firing plasma rifles at the ships, though they had little effect. Ramps extended out of the ships, doors opening moments later. Immediately, Tamaraneans appeared, shooting back at the Thanagarians.

"Not exactly what I was expecting," Arrow remarked as he watched this latest twist. "But as they say, the enemy of my enemy is my friend."

Interesting outlook, but that didn't really capture the fact that both of these alien forces were their enemy. So that brought up the question of whose side was friends with who?

An incredible blast struck a wall, causing an explosion to erupt. Shayera was nowhere near it, but she felt the force of it and her body flinched in response.

Whipping around to face it, she saw a hand-held plasma cannon held by one of her kinsmen. It was about the size of a bazooka, but with a wider barrel and a more destructive payload. Apparently Hro's men were done playing around.

Ever worse, the cannon was charging up again.

"Head's up!" Shayera shouted, getting the attention of her fellow Leaguers. "We've got incoming!"

The cannon fired, sending another large blast towards them. In response, Black Lighting stood in front of the approaching blast, holding up both of his hands. Electricity crackles and soon spread out from his hands to touch the ceiling, walls, and floor. There was an ethereal glow to it, indicating it was some sort of shield.

The blast struck the shield soon after and another explosion lit up the corridor. A blinding light seared at the Thanagarian's eyes, but she never lost sight of Black Lightning's silhouette. She took that to mean the shield was holding.

Eventually, the light faded and Black Lightning dropped to a knee. He was breathing heavily, which wasn't a good sign. Steel was behind the man a moment later, placing his hand on his back. "Hey, you okay?"

Black Lightning was audibly panting now. "I don't think…I can…make it through…another one…of those," he managed to say between gasps.

Well, that was disappointing. That meant they had to deal with the damn cannon. Glancing over her shoulder, Shayera wanted to make certain they were holding strong there when she noticed further down the hallway were more of her kinsmen, particularly two of them kneeling on the floor. On their shoulders were plasma cannons, each one clearly ready for use.

Oh, shit…

Eyes wide, Shayera knew they were not in a good position. They needed to get out of this hallway before they were blown up to kingdom come. Eyes darting from side to side, she then noticed an intersecting hallway. That was their best shot at the moment. She immediately darted for it. "This way!" she called out over her shoulder.

Only to stop once she reached it.

Further down the intersecting hall, she saw more guards gathering, a couple of plasma cannons in their possession as well. Just great, they were cornered.

Yet, for some odd reason, they weren't firing.

"Hey, Hawkgirl," Vixen called out to the redhead. "I think we've got a problem."

"Yeah, we do," she agreed. The supermodel-turned-hero was at her side, freezing when she saw what Shayera was seeing.

"Uhh, I don't think Black Lightning can protect us from all of those," she said after a moment.

That was true, though they still had Firestorm. He could maybe make a shield, or use his nuclear fusion powers to blast them away…only for them to get hit from one of the other plasma cannons. Maybe instead he could make an exit so they could at least regroup and get out of this piss-poor situation. Whatever he did, it would have to give all of them a chance to leave, or someone was going to get caught up in the resulting explosion from not one, not two, but five cannons firing simultaneously.

That thought caused Shayera to frown. Five plasma cannons? That seemed rather reckless. She knew Hro would have ordered their capture, but he'd want to keep the Raptor in one piece. Using that much firepower to apprehend, and potentially kill them, was overkill. This didn't feel like a Hro order.

But then, she hadn't expected him to build a Black Hole Generator either.

"Members of the Justice League," a familiar—and completely unwelcomed—voice called out. A scowl appeared on Shayera's face just from hearing it. "Surrender yourselves now, or be killed."

In the intersecting hallway, the King of Kiss-Asses emerged. Kragger put himself front and center, his men with the plasma rifles positioned on either side of him so that they had a shot if they needed to take them. There was a self-satisfied look on the Lieutenant's face, a bird of prey having caught its prey.

God, did she really hate him.

"I should have known you were somewhere around her," Shayera called out, her hand gripping tightly onto her mace. "Come to prove your worth again?"

"I have proven that over and over," Kragger countered. "I am here on orders from Commander Talak to apprehend you—whether alive or dead is entirely up to you."

"If you think we're going to give up—" Vixen began.

"If you don't, you will die," Kragger cut her off. "Decorum is the only reason you aren't dead already."

"Pretty certain that's because we've been kicking your asses," Vixen shot back.

By this time, the rest of the League had gathered at the intersection, though they made certain the other guard units weren't shrinking the distance between them. "You might want to cut out the bravado," Steel hissed towards Vixen. "We are not in a good spot here."

"We can't be captured again," Fire replied. "Too much is at stake."

Both of those statements were true. If they gave up, they would be dooming Earth; if they resisted, they would most likely die and then Earth would follow along right behind them.

If there was a way out of this, Shayera wasn't seeing it.

And all the while, Kragger was smirking at her expectantly.

How she wanted to bash his face in.

Maybe she could…

"Firestorm, I'm going to need you to start going nuclear," she said lowly towards the flame-headed hero.

"Are you kidding?" he hissed back. "I'll kill us all!"

"I didn't say blow up; just be very showy about it."

Not allowing for any more dissent, Shayera stood to her full height and raised up her mace, pointing the spiked head towards the shithead. "You want us, fine, but the only way you get us is if you fight me, one-on-one."

Kragger snorted. "And why should I fight you? I have you right where I want you."

"Firestorm, now," she grunted lowly.

Thankfully, the young man did as she asked. Floating into the air so that he could be seen, he held out both of his hands, flames erupting around them. Those same flames began to flow towards one another, meeting in the space midway between the hands. In a matter of seconds, what looked like a miniature sun formed, slowly growing bigger. Something just screamed danger about it.

"You asked why you should fight me?" Shayera called out. "Because if you don't, my friend here is going to nuke us all. I don't think Hro would care to have his ship blown to bits."

Kragger stared at her, the light from Firestorm's nuclear sun flowing over him. "You know as well as I do the Raptor will remain intact. This ship is built to withstand weapons far more powerful. If this is your last resort, I must say I am disappointed."

Well, he was right, but that didn't mean several levels of the ship wouldn't be decimated. Hell, they could hit something important, though if Kragger's demeanor was any indication, he was willing to make the trade-off, so there probably wasn't anything of value here.

He clearly had forgotten one though.

"I'm sure the Raptor will survive, but you won't," Shayera replied. "And quite frankly, I'm willing to burn just to see you scream like a bitch falling into Hell. So, ready to put your own skin into this?"

Kragger's eyes widened. Even from this distance, Shayera could see him weighing his options. He was far too close for his men to blast Firestorm, who would most assuredly unleash his nuclear power, thus wiping them all out. There was no certainty either that shooting Firestorm would stop the subsquent nuclear blast either; it could very well set it off without him controlling it. No doubt, in Kragger's mind, his own life was more valuable.

"You would kill yourself for these humans?" he spoke up then. "Does that not seem short-sighted of you?"

"Dying usually is," Shayera responded. "But even if we don't completely destroy the Raptor, we will cripple it. And newsflash, these aren't the strongest members of the Justice League. Superman, Wonder Woman, the Martian Manhunter—not to mention the Green Lantern Corp—is all out there. I made certain they heard about the Black Hole Generator and they will do everything it takes to stop it. Firestorm damaging this ship will only help them."

Kragger's face hardened. He was beginning to realize that she wasn't the only one backed into a corner. This time, she smirked at him. "Before you try something else, just know that every attempt you make to weasel out of this will only hurt your reputation. No doubt your men are wondering why you don't take this duel. You keep hedging and you're going to give yourself a reputation for being weak, self-serving, and just a giant dickhead."

And now she was the bird of prey that had caught her prey.

Several seconds passed. "Very well," Kragger said. "I accept your challenge. All I ask is that you end your light display."

Shayera's smile dropped from her face. "And take away my only advantage? Yeah, that would be real smart on my part. The moment Firestorm relinquishes his power, you'll just have one of your men fire a shot at him."

"And if I give you my word that none of my men will retaliate?"

"I'd be a fool to trust you."

Kragger straightened his posture. "All units, stand down!" he hollered. "No one touches the enemy combatants during my duel with the traitor!" Then he said directly to Shayera, "Will that suffice?"

Shayera glanced over her shoulder at Firestorm. "How quickly can you get that flaming ball of light back?" she questioned.

"With as much power as I've gathered? In an instant," he replied.

"Alright, then lose the light show. Everyone, keep an eye on the Thanagarians. If you so much as see one look suspicious, point it out. Firestorm, you hear any of them even mention taking a shot at you, you bring out the nuke again."

The Nuclear Man began to lower himself back to the floor. "You got it," was all he said to her as he began shrinking his gathered power. The light grew dim until the flames that made up the nuclear power separated and returned to either hand, vanishing moments later.

Shayera then returned his attention back to Kragger. Taking a couple steps forward, she held her mace in front of her, ready for combat.

Kragger took a couple steps towards her as well, leisurely grasping the hilt of an axe. "I hear you're quite handy with that mace. I hope you don't disappoint me."

"Oh, trust me, the only one that's going to disappoint anyone is you."

Following the arrival of the Tameraneans, the Thanagarians began to fall. The Tamaraneans made an effort to engage the Thanagarians in close combat, something that Batman thought was a mistake.

And then he was reminded of their superhuman strength.

The Tamaraneans showed exactly why they were formidable the moment they engaged in hand-to-hand combat. When a Thanagarian attacked with an Nth metal weapon, the Tamaranean would counter with their fists. A number of Thanagarians had been thrown through the air after a hit or two, unable to continue fighting shortly after.

It soon ended with the Tamaraneans in control of the hangar, and Batman, Black Canary, and Green Arrow between them and the rest of the Watchtower.

"So, is this a good thing or a bad thing?" Green Arrow questioned, a trick arrow notched to his bow. Hopefully it was one that froze things because that was their best tactic against the Tamaraneans. Batman was already reaching for the few Freeze Grenades he had on him. Between that and Black Canary's Canary Cry, and hopefully they could stop this latest incursion.

The Tamaraneans spotted them immediately and began to approach. The three crime fighters readied themselves.

One of the Tamraneans took the lead and purposefully held his plasma rifle out, his other hand held up as well. It was clearly a gesture to indicate they meant no harm. It was difficult to believe with the rest of the Tamaraneans holding their plasma rifles at the ready.

"That seems promising," Green Arrow commented. Then, "Hi, not from around here, are you?"

Naturally, the Tamaranean responded in his native tongue, meaning none of them understood him. All the while, the Tamaranean kept walking to them, though he was angled towards Arrow.

"Sorry, didn't catch that," Arrow said. "How about—"

The Tamaranean came to a stop in front of the archer, then with his free hand reached out and grabbed Arrow by the back of his head. He promptly pulled him close and the two men kissed.

"Oh my God," Black Canary gasped with surprise, a hint that she was also trying not to laugh as Arrow's face went slack, his eyes wide.

Then the kiss ended. "My apologies," the Tamaranean said. "We were having an issue with communication and I wanted to rectify it."

Green Arrow just stared at him, slack jawed. "I am Karras, a representative of New Tamaran," the Tamaranean continued. "And you are members of the immigration service, the Justice League, correct?"

"More or less," Batman replied. "What are you doing here?"

Karras lowered his weapon to his side, pointing the barrel at the floor. "I and my kinsmen were ordered by our Grand Ruler to seize the immigration satellite in an effort to distract the Thanagarians. We hope to draw their forces here so that others can strike at their main fleet."

That actually wasn't a bad tactic. "And we're here to take command of the teleporter to transport our forces," he responded. Considering their situation, if this was one less fight they had to go through, then it was worth cooperating. "If you're here to help, then we might as well help each other."

"That is quite excellent. We have a common enemy and it makes sense that we should unite against them."

"Then I recommend you send your forces to put down any Thanagarian resistance still present while we go to the Monitor Room. That will give us control of the Watchtower."

"We will see it done," Karras proclaimed before he turned to his men. He said something in his native tongue and the Tamaraneans immediately began to head towards the exit.

"Are you sure about this?" Black Canary questioned, keeping her tone low. "We were just fighting these guys not that long ago."

"They have as much to lose as we do if the Thanagarians turn on that generator," Batman whispered back. "And if there is a plan to backstab us, the moment we gain control of the Watchtower we can activate its defenses."

"As long as you're sure about this." Canary then looked to Arrow. "Hey, you going to be okay?"

Arrow just continued to stare into space. "Ollie, it was just a kiss and not a romantic one at that," Canary continued. "Just shake it off already."

Arrow then glanced towards her. "It wasn't a bad one either," he finally said.

There was a moment of silence. "Come again?"

"That Carrot guy, he certainly knows how to kiss. I have to say…I'm kinda impressed."

There had been needless teasing following Green Arrow's admission about his kiss with Karras. Canary had been relentless, a shit-eating grin on her face that only fell when she realized that the archer was considering getting tips.

Batman did his best to ignore it all.

When they reached the Monitor Room, it became apparent the Tamaraneans had secured it. A number of Thanagarians lay on the floor, beaten or shot by plasma rifles. As much as he didn't want to see anyone dead, there were larger issues to be concerned with. Heading for the computer, Batman got to work.

"I have a lock on the Black Hole Generator," he announced shortly. By then, Karras had joined them, standing next to Arrow, who was glancing at him every so often. The vigilante grimaced. "I'm getting high levels of energy. They must have activated it."

"That is not good," Karras said worriedly. "We must stop it."

"So we're on a ticking clock without any idea of how much time we got," Black Canary groused, her arms crossed over her chest.

All the while, Batman had continued typing. "It gets worse," he added. "I'm picking up other energy signatures; I'm pretty certain there's a forcefield in place to protect the generator."

"This just keeps getting better and better," Arrow complained.

It would have helped if they had a better idea of how much time they had. While there was the intel he had gotten from Waller…

Wait, the translations.

Immediately, he accessed the file, finding the translations. He skimmed through it until he found something useful. "The generator requires a lot of power, so the time it takes to be fully activated is great." He continued to read. "I'm not seeing anything definitive, but we're looking at an hour, approximately."

"So we have less than an hour to take down that shield and stop the generator. That isn't too much," Green Arrow remarked.

"It is not?" Karras responded. "That is quite the relief."

"And he completely missed sarcasm," Canary said. "Alright, so how do we take down the shield?"

Returning to the information on the generator, Batman identified and isolated the energy signature he believed was the forcefield. He just needed to find a similar signature and…

"There's a second signature moving away from the generator, no doubt a Thanagarian ship." Batman brought up the Watchtower's radar, doing a search for any and all spacecraft.

It couldn't have been more easy to spot the ship in question. "It's the command ship for Talak's legion," Batman reported. Alright, it was time to start moving pieces into place.

"Batman to all points."

John immediately raised his hand to his ear. He was airborne, flying as fast as he could, so the wind that battered at him made it difficult to hear.

And he wanted to hear what Gotham's Dark Knight was about to say. He usually had intel or a strategy to turn whatever mess they were in around. After his radio silence following the Thanagarian declaration of Martial Law, it was welcomed to hear his voice.

"We've retaken the Watchtower."

So that's what he had been up to. He must have found some other way onto the Watchtower—or rather, used some secret access point only he knew—and waited for the right moment to use it. For once, he was glad to think Batman had a secret or two.

"I need all points to head to Gobi, or the Thanagarian command ship," the bat-themed hero continued. "We're detecting a power surge from the generator the Thanagarians built. We have predictions indicating the generator will be fully activated in less than an hour. It needs to be destroyed before then."

And now they had a ticking clock scenario. It just added to the weight of the intel Shayera had revealed not too long ago, that the Defense Shield Generator was actually a Black Hole Generator. Flash had headed right for Gobi, no questions asked. That had left him, Superman, and Diana to do a short conference, which sent the latter two after Flash to provide support. Zatanna had been left behind to help finish off the remaining Kalanorians forces that had breached Earth's atmosphere with the Titans.

As for him…

Up ahead, through the thin cloud cover, he saw the Thanagarian command ship, the Raptor. It was somewhere over the Pacific, clearly having drifted away from the generator. It was most likely in preparation for departure so that it wasn't sucked up into the black hole that was about to be created.

John wasn't alone either.

Behind him was a division of Tamaran's remaining forces, another group having gone up to the Watchtower. No doubt the Tamaraneans attacking the Watchtower had given Batman his opportunity to retake it.

"Unfortunately, we're detecting a power signature indicating a forcefield is protecting the generator," Batman then said, which only made the Green Lantern scowl. Of course this couldn't be simple. "A second signature is present upon the Thanagarian command ship. We need to shut that shield down—now."

"On it," John replied quickly. "Me and a contingency of Tamaraneans have the ship in sight. We'll commence our attack immediately."

"The priority is shutting down the forcefield. I don't care what you have to do, but get on that ship as soon as possible."

"Copy; over and out." John moved his hand from his ear and held it out with his other one, the classic Superman flight pose. He was minutes out from engaging the enemy.

And they were going to be ready.

As he and the Tamaraneans drew closer to the Raptor, a number of small Thanagarians fighters appeared, launching from the command ship. They were beginning to form a defensive perimeter, just another obstacle to slow them down.

John wasn't going to let them have it.

Channeling his will, he began to make a construct. Over him and beneath him, left and right, four large gun turrets formed. A moment later they began to rotate, picking up speed before they began unleashing unholy hell. A barrage of green construct bullets fired from the turrets.

The small fighters instantly reacted as they ceased their defensive formation and scrambled into evasive maneuvers. That still wasn't enough for several of the ships to be shot out of the sky, either exploding, or suffering enough damage that sent the ships plummeting to the Pacific below.

Then the Tamaraneans leapt into action. Unconsciously, John had slowed down as he formed his gun turret constructs, which allowed the Tamaraneans ships to suddenly fly right by him. They began opening fire with their plasma cannons. More explosions erupted before the Thanagarians began returning fire.

And that was how you got two alien forces into a dogfight.

All around John, he saw ships chasing after one another, firing the occasional shot, or flat out firing as fast as they could until they shot another ship down. By this point, he allowed his turret constructs to fade as he pressed forward. Spying a Tamaranean being chased, he held up his ring hand, rising upward as he fired a green beam. His green beam rose upward through the air with his arm, striking the back end of the Thanagarian ship and causing an explosion to erupt. That sent the rest of the ship to tilt downwards and begin falling to the ocean, a cloud of thick smoke left in its wake.

Plasma blasts suddenly burned through the air nearby. Jerking his head, he saw a Thanagarian ship closing in on him, opening fire with everything the ship had. Turning to fully face it, John held his ring hand above his head, firing the same green beam as previous out of the ring. This time, he swung his arm down, bringing the beam down and slicing the ship down the middle. Immediately, the fighter began to divide into it, split apart until it was two separate halves. Each half kept flying forward, passing on either side of the Green Lantern, revealing a Thanagarian in each half, stupefied looks on their faces.

And then they were gone. John didn't bother paying attention to whether the ship blew up, or it fell out of the battle. He had literal bigger fishes to fly. Returning his attention to the Raptor, he resumed his flight towards it, heading for a point on the underbelly of the ship.

It wasn't an uneventful flight either. He shot down as many Thanagarians as he could, assisting the Tamaraneans in their dogfight. Eventually, he reached his target as he came to hover beneath it. Pointing his ring right at it, he fired out a beam.

The beam immediately widened out, forming a construct far larger than was perhaps necessary. Its base was wide, narrowing at its head, Forming the head were three round drill bits, ones specifically used for oil drilling. Each bit began to rotate, picking up speed until their sharp edges could not be seen.

He forced the drill construct right into the Raptor's hull, sparks immediately erupting. The drill sank through the metal, slowly at first, but picking up speed. Then it suddenly lunged further into the ship.

He was through. Allowing the construct to fade away, John flew right into the hole he had created appearing in a hallway. Nearby were two Thanagarians, still holding their arms up to protect their faces from the onslaught of sparks the drill must have kicked up.

In an instant, John formed two boxing glove constructs, each one hovering in midair, attached to his physical arms by extensions of his aura. Throwing both of his arms out in front of him, he sent the construct flying, slamming them into the guards, and knocking them down.

He was officially in.

Being the fastest man alive meant that vast distances were not as much of an obstacle as it was for others. This also included geography. He had figured out a long time ago how fast he needed to go to run on water itself, so crossing the Pacific was easy. Going through the river basins of China and north into the Gobi itself was a breeze.

Soon, he was right at the site of the generator that definitely wasn't a defense shield. And here he had helped build the damn thing. If he had known that thing was going to be used to destroy the world, he wouldn't have helped!

But the past was the past and you had to keep running forward.

Coming to a stop, Flash surveyed the immediate area. He could see that horrible thing that was going to destroy the Earth looking as sleek and evil as ever. The Thanagarian ships were airborne, keeping watch. And then there were all the jet planes firing missiles at a forcefield and hey, somebody beat him here. Was this what it was like to be late? Huh, it was a weird feeling. He didn't know if he liked it.

Well, it was far past time to put an end to this little party, and he had plenty of experience in being the party pooper. Noticing the shimmer in the air where missiles detonated against the forcefield, the fastest man in the world leveled his gaze dead ahead, got into position, then took off with all the speed he could muster.

The world was a blur, the sand not even slowing him down, though the last second shimmer his eyes spotted had him desperately trying to stop. Too much speed, he wouldn't be able to come to a sudden stop like a cartoon, so that meant making a sharp turn and skidding, kicking up a wave of sand.

The way some of the sand rebounded only confirmed what he suspected. The forcefield went all the way to the ground. Kinda obvious in hindsight because why would anyone…never mind.

Right now, he needed to find a way in. He began running again, figuring out just what diameter he was dealing with here. Yep, it pretty much went around the whole generator with some space in change. Right, how about this? He threw countless punches against the barrier, each blow causing a small ripple but not showing any signs of breaking through.

Coming to a stop, he unleashed another barrage of punches all in the same spot. Countless hits and blows struck the same spot, and while it appeared the shield was being disrupted, he could feel in his hands that he wasn't getting through. Alright, how about this? Holding both hands out, he began to vibrate both until they were virtual blurs, the very molecules and atoms all moving at superspeed.

He pushed forward, the forcefield violently rippled, and then Flash pulled back, taking in everything.

Nothing. He hadn't been able to get through. Well, he was pretty much out of ideas. Maybe if he could think outside of the box…

From the very base of the Black Hole Generator, white light began tracing upwards, some making ninety degree angle turns either to the left or right at random junctures before correcting and heading up once more. Like lines being drawn, they continued to rise higher and higher until disappearing over the top. Seconds later a thin beam of light began to emit from the top, slowly, oh so slowly beginning to widen.

With wide eyes, the Scarlet Speedster could only say, "That can't be good."

Fun Fact: Karras is a Tamaranean from the comics, not an OC AV and I made just for convenience. In the comics, he's actually engaged to Starfire, though we're not using that bit in the story here.