With a sharp crack, Thea lashed out a yellow construct chain, wrapping it around what seemed to be Parallax's thickest arm—signaling the start of their attack.
Batman threw a Batarang, observed its uselessness, then vaulted into the Batwing.
Nightwing, helpless, could only join the ground teams rescuing the elderly and children.
The main offensive force came from Thea and Superman.
Thea held the chain tight with her left hand to keep Parallax from rampaging, while her right hand wielded a longsword, stabbing repeatedly into its mass.
When she found this too inefficient, she switched to a massive blade, hacking off large chunks of smoke and tendrils.
Any severed parts turned into yellow energy:
sixty percent was reabsorbed by Parallax,
thirty percent was absorbed by Thea's ring and the Book of Parallax,
and ten percent vanished into the void.
That last portion irritated her.
Some instinct told her that energy was drifting all the way to Sinestro.
I'm fighting for my life here, and that bastard is hiding on Oa getting stronger? Unbelievable.
The irritation only made her fight harder—thirty percent was still better than nothing.
Her ferocity genuinely startled Superman.
His overwhelming sense of duty wouldn't allow him to slack, so he took a deep breath and unleashed freezing breath across Parallax's body.
Batman, piloting the Batwing, coordinated perfectly—shattering the frozen sections.
Midway through, Green Lantern Hal Jordan joined in, manifesting a giant autocannon and bombarding Parallax with rapid-fire emerald blasts.
Their combined assault inflicted real damage…
but the civilians of Coast City were too many, and too complacent.
Even Amanda's earlier explosions hadn't frightened the entire city. Many still hid at home, thinking danger wouldn't reach them.
Their wishful thinking created massive problems for Thea's group.
"This isn't working. He's recovering too fast!"
Unlike Thea's Eye of Horus, Superman's X-ray vision cost almost no energy. With nothing better to do, he scanned constantly—and discovered the issue first:
after all their efforts, Parallax's total energy was actually increasing thanks to the constant influx of civilian fear.
If Sinestro were here, he would have ordered a massacre without hesitation.
But these were heroes—no matter what happened, slaughtering civilians was impossible.
"Can we release some kind of stun weapon? Knock everyone out?"
Parallax was too focused on devouring fear to chase them. Their attack had been ineffective, so they retreated to regroup.
Seeing the helplessness of the "justice" faction, Thea offered a suggestion.
"Good idea!"
Superman and Hal Jordan responded at the same time.
But none of the three—including Thea—had any such weapon.
So all eyes turned to the man stepping out of the Batwing.
Damn it.
Batman almost cursed aloud. Of course he had such weapons.
But unleashing a district-wide stun device?
What would the government and the military think?
A private individual secretly manufacturing weapons of that magnitude?
Future congressional hearings and Pentagon interrogations alone would be hell.
But with the situation as dire as it was, he had no choice.
For the greater good, he'd be the scapegoat again.
He quickly switched the Batwing's payloads and dropped three high-intensity stun charges into the city.
A deafening wave of sound ripped across normally peaceful Coast City.
Even the heroes struggled with it.
Thea manifested a soundproof room; Hal Jordan, inspired, created his own, pulling Superman—whose hearing was painfully sensitive—inside.
"His energy buildup seems to have stopped," Superman said.
They still suffered from the noise, but Parallax had no hearing organs left.
And even if they hid in little yellow and green rooms, he wasn't blind—he simply crushed the constructs and resumed the fight.
They attacked again.
This time, Parallax's energy growth clearly slowed.
But Thea noticed her own energy intake slowing too.
To maintain her enormous construct consumption, she had no choice but to keep cutting Parallax apart and siphoning the fear energy from his limbs while dodging its tendrils.
As she fought, Nightwing sped past beneath her on a motorcycle, tossing her an earpiece.
Obviously Batman's work.
She connected the line. "What is it?"
"Five National Guard F-22s are taking off now. They'll enter the battlefield in five minutes. Regular military forces are also en route. Amanda wants to know if we can actually beat this thing."
Batman sounded exhausted—fighting a monster while dealing with government bureaucracy at the same time.
"Is Amanda on the line?"
"I'm here. Can't you drag that thing out of the city?"
Amanda's voice was harsh through the comm.
"This thing doesn't have legs. Haven't you noticed? It hasn't taken a single step since this started. What do you want me to do?"
Thea was at her wit's end. The destruction was unavoidable—none of them could control their energy output.
The only silver lining was that reconstruction would be extensive… and unlike Wayne Enterprises or LexCorp, which had pivoted to biotech and advanced materials, Queen Industries was still America's leading construction conglomerate.
Rebuilding Coast City would be a goldmine.
Thea dispelled her giant construct.
For reasons likely tied to the Guardian body Parallax was using, it showed almost no combat technique—just mindless, mutual stabbing.
Her skill meant nothing against something that dumb.
So she manifested a larger, more physically devastating construct—a colossal golden dragon.
It tore, clawed, and slammed its wings, glittering like a holy beast… if one ignored where its power came from.
The giant dragon seized Parallax's body.
Its enormous head looked like a weak point, so Thea didn't hesitate—she forced the dragon's claws in deep and wrenched Parallax's head out.
The heroes weren't stupid.
They focused all fire on the exposed head.
Thea's dragon blocked part of Superman's angle, so he switched to sweeping heat vision.
Batman unleashed the Batwing's full arsenal—ice rounds, incendiaries, everything.
But even combined, their power couldn't match Hal Jordan's.
Every emerald blast representing courage sank into Parallax's body and caused its internal energies to churn violently.
"Green Lantern, don't stop! Your attacks are the most effective!"
After accidentally being hit by one green stray shot herself, Thea finally understood just how much pain opposite-spectrum energy caused.
She shouted encouragement.
Hal Jordan, who was already hyped up like a kid on sugar, went absolutely wild—unleashing an even more reckless barrage.