Meanwhile, in Earth's orbit
Richard, Hal and their allies were still taking on the waves of Starro controlled slaves.
"I think we're winning," Richard cried, as he and Hal used their powers to blast and smack their enemies away.
"You might want to reconsider that," Hal said, as two new figures descended towards them.
The figures were Kallark a.k.a. Gladiator, Commander (Praetor) of the Shi'ar Imperial Guard, and Kl'rt a.k.a. Super-Skrull, the Skrull empire's premiere super soldier.
"About time," Lobo smiled, "the Main Mans been looking for challenge."
"A Super Skrull," Blackfire exclaimed, "truly a worthy test of Tamaranean might."
The two rushed at Gladiator and Super-Skrull causing a huge shockwave as the as the four collided.
Gladiator and Lobo traded blows, the blows, of course, doing nothing to Lobo because of his Czarnian physiology, all the while Gladiator refused to let up.
Blackfire and Super-Skrull's battle was all over the place, with Blackfire firing her starbolts and Super-Skrull stretching his body around her attacks. Since he had all the powers of the Fantastic Four, he did manage to ensnare Blackfire by wrapping his body around her.
"Sorry to disappoint you," Blackfire smiled, "but I am stronger than I look."
And with an almighty heave, Blackfire broke free of Super-Skrulls grip and proceeded to throw punch after punch, even when the Super-Skrull shape-shifted his skin into rock, she simply punched harder and faster than his skin could change.
Hal, Richard and the others followed their teammates example and dug deep inside themselves and found new levels of strength.
Back on Earth.
"I've got something," Machine Man said, "there appears to be a signal being beaming into space."
"It must be a beacon of some kind," Jocasta suggested.
"If thats the case," Twilight said, "it would seem that Starro locates planets to conquer by homing in on radio beam."
"So if we take out the beam..." Roberto da Costa a.k.a. Sunspot began.
"Then Starro can't won't be able to find Earth," Jennifer Takeda a.k.a. Hazmat finished.
"OK," Rainbow Dash cried, "then let's find this signal thing and destroy it."
"There is still another issues we need to consider," Twilight interrupted, "if these Starro things control people by being connected to their brains, then how do we remove the starfish safety?"
"We'll cross that bridge when we get to it," Midnight interjected, "right now, there are two things we need to do: one, find the source of the signal and stop it, two: we need to find someone who's a good manipulating minds to make freeing everyone from Starro's control a lot easier."
"That might be sooner than expected," Machine Man said, "it seems that someone is approaching our location."
He turned on the security cameras for the mansion above the outpost, so he and the others could see who had entered the building above.
The cameras showed M'gann M'orzz a.k.a. Miss Martian with a starfish on her face, walking around the mansion looking for something.
"How long do we have before she finds us?" Quicksilver asked.
"Given that martians have nearly the same powers as a Kryptonian," Jocasta replied, "I'd say we have about...."
She was saved from having to finish the sentence, as a crashing sound was heard, as the bookcase in the mansion above was ripped out and tossed aside.
"If anyone has any useful information," Rainbow Dash said, as the sound of footsteps began approaching, "now would be the time."
"Well," Twilight spoke up, "If I remember correctly Martians are weak to fire."
"I'll handle that," Combo man declared.
"Remember," Twilight replied, "you don't want to hurt her, all we need to do is subdue her."
"Understood," Combo man nodded, covering his fists with a thin layer flame.
As the starfish controlled Miss Martian began to descended the staircase, Combo man punched her so hard she when flying back into the mansion.
"I specifically said 'subdue'," Twilight groaned, "not clobber."
"Sorry," Combo man replied, "I haven't used my powers in a while, I've forgotten how strong I am."
Miss Martian tried to counterattack, but in the presence of fire, recoiled as she began to grow weaker.
Combo man managed to counter Miss Martian as she tried in vain to retaliate, only to be hit with small blasts of fire.
Finally, Miss Martian looked like she couldn't stand anymore but the starfish on her face was forcing her to keep going even if its host was failing.
As Miss Martian tried to make one last attempt to fight back, she was hit by shot of electricity from Static, finally knocking her out cold.
Shortly after, Miss Martian was restrained on a table in the safe house control room, the room was surprisingly big and full of equipment.
Combo man and Static were keeping watch in case her tried to break loose.
"Alright," Kitty Pryde remarked, "now that we've got Miss Martian."
"Now we have to figure out how to get that starfish off her face," Sideways added.
"It's not like we can just pull it off," Captain Citrus said.
"Indeed," Machine Man nodded, "what we do know about these creatures is that, once they have found a host they become mentally linked together."
"Machine Man is right," Jocasta agreed, "I don't think I need to point out that this isn't just one alien species here it's two and we do not yet understand the manner in which they are linked together."
"So we're out of ideas," Rainbow Dash said.
"There has to be something," Rarity insisted, "we can't just leave her, with that thing on her face."
While the others were thinking and theorising on how to free Miss Martian, Sunset approached the restrained hero and reached out to touch the starfish on her face, only for Combo man to grab her hand.
"What are you doing?" he asked.
"We have to find out what these are and where they came from," Sunset replied, "with my powers, I can look into this thing's mind and get us some answers."
"Maybe there's another way we can..." Midnight began.
"I'm the only one who can do it," Sunset interrupted.
The girls were about to argue, but the look on Sunset's face told them it would be impossible.
"If I might offer a suggestion," Magneto said, "one must have the right protection when performing this kind of undertaking."
He took off his helmet and handed it to Sunset, the helmet was made of an unknown metal that allowed whoever wore it to be shielded against mind reading, mental and physic attacks.
"Thank you," Sunset replied, grateful for the precaution, with that she put on the helmet.
Then, Sunset touched the starfish and her geode, her eyes flash white as she was granted access to the starfish's memories and thus connecting her to Starro's mind.
A planet, older than time it self, in another universe, were biodiversity worked in reverse where creatures emerged fully formed. Monsters of unparalleled power roamed the planet surface, until the planet was conquered one species - Starro.
Starro then when on to conquer every world in his universe, enslaving minds to his will. Until a wave of antimatter swept through Starro's world, destroying it.
Starro, by some miracle, managed to escape the wave and fled from his universe, finally ending up in the universe he was in right now.
After which he found help, in the form of his herald an alien hunter with no face.
"What did you see?" Applejack asked, as Sunset returned back to reality.
"This thing is part of a bigger creature," Sunset replied, "but it seems that the creature is only here because its world was destroyed."
"Destroyed," Static said, "destroyed by what?"
"Something bigger, stronger and more powerful than Starro itself," Sunset responded.
"What kind of being could destroy an entire universe?" Wanda said.
"We can speculate about that later," Sunset replied, taking off Magneto's helmet and returning it to him, "right now, we need focus on freeing Miss Martian."
While, everyone began to work on freeing their friend from Starro's control, Gali was still thinking about what Uatu had said.
Not only that, but a phrase kept repeating over and over in her mind, devourer of worlds.