Chapter 314: Ch.313 Evolution War

Chapter 314: Ch.313 Evolution War

"Justice League, what is the current situation?"

Martian Manhunter floated quietly in Earth's orbit, not far from the League's Watchtower on the Moon. With the League members scattered across the world, his mental network was crucial for their communication.

Batman and Green Arrow were deep beneath Star City, locked in battle with a group of enemies in the pitch-black tunnels.

Bruce had donned the "Crusher" armor he had used against the Talons, sending a particularly grotesque humanoid creature flying with a single punch.

Behind him, Green Arrow was struggling a bit—this cramped and twisting battleground wasn't exactly conducive to using a bow.

"I should have gone with Diana to the equator, or with Barry to the Arctic. This place is awful," Green Arrow muttered, using an arrow as a dagger to stab a creature before tossing aside its furry corpse.

Batman ignored his complaints. Focused as always during missions, he used the armor's spotlight to scan the area after crushing another opponent's spine with a punch.

"Our enemies seem to be some kind of apemen, as if they've lived underground for tens of thousands of years. Their upper limbs are highly developed, their bodies strong, and their armor appears to be some form of reinforced rock."

"Can you break through their armor?" J'onn asked, crossing his legs as he floated in space, his gaze fixed on the blue planet below.

"J'onn, I live in..."

"I live in a cave. I know rocks really well..." Barry's voice cut in from the icy Arctic, imitating Bruce's tone with a deep voice. "How did I do? Did I nail it?"

Unfortunately, the Arctic cold made his voice tremble a bit.

"Barry, that's not how I sound," Bruce replied without changing his expression, continuing his battle, though he had been planning to say exactly that.

"Sorry, sorry. Ahem, anyway, we've made good progress in the Arctic. The rapid warming causing sublimation of the ice disrupts their electromagnetic devices. Mr. Terrific and Plastic Man agree that I can call this a victory for science."

Barry cleared his throat awkwardly, explaining the situation in the Arctic.

"Same here," said Hawkgirl, who was in the sky dealing with atmospheric threats alongside Adam Strange. "They're using some kind of gas to poison the atmosphere, though I haven't mastered Batman's speech style yet."

Hawkman was still in the hospital after being attacked by Su Ming and hit on the head with a Worldforger weapon by Superman. He remained comatose.

"The situation is becoming clear," J'onn reasoned from space, piecing together the clues. "Someone placed these apemen in different 'pocket dimensions' tens of thousands of years ago, pushing them to evolve in different directions. This sounds a lot like something done by Vandal Savage."

Superman and Cyborg were in Gotham City, at the final battleground of the Metal event—Challenger Mountain, where the cosmic tuning fork was still situated, too intricate to move easily.

They, too, were surrounded by heavily armed apemen. While the creatures appeared to have low intelligence, they still sought to exploit this advanced technology.

"I agree with you, J'onn. This isn't an attack; it's an evolution war. These apemen want Earth," Clark said, uppercutting an apeman into the atmosphere before turning to face another war machine.

Cyborg, fighting alongside him, added, "Not on our watch."

Barry chuckled—he was almost done on his end, as the Speed Force always made things quicker. "You sound just like Batman. Why not try mimicking his voice? Use the Mother Box or something."

Cyborg's arm transformed into a cannon, blasting away a group of enemies. "Standing next to Superman? No thanks. Clark's got the voice down pat."

Barry stacked the unconscious apemen together and dusted off his hands. "Yeah, he nailed it. 'Do you bleed?' That line—"

Batman and Superman said in unison, "Barry?"

"Uh, sorry, I shouldn't have brought that up. But it really was spot on," Barry mumbled, realizing he'd made another slip.

"Well, if you ignore the content, the tone was pretty close," Cyborg chipped in, trying to smooth things over. No one liked remembering Superman and Batman's civil war. "If I wanted to mimic it, I could just edit together some of Batman's audio files."

"No, that wouldn't be good," Batman said flatly as he stomped an apeman into the ground, breaking all its bones.

J'onn continued to hover in space, listening to the banter among his teammates, with his mental network keeping them closely connected.

They felt like one big family, bound by trust and unity.