Giant Man grew to his full height of 25 feet and was still dwarfed by the goliath known as Terminus. He grabbed the alien's leg and tried to trip Terminus. But the master of Oa swung his staff and sent Giant-Man tumbling through the side of a strange looking building.

"Hank!" Wasp yelled, rushing to see if he was okay.

Thor got caught in an awesome blast of power from Terminus' staff. He cried out in pain and was propelled across the city, semi-conscious. J'Onn telepathically ordered the team to regroup. Their strategy wasn't working.

Batman stood on a rooftop, watching carefully with his acute powers of observation, trying to spot a weakness in the giant. Still linked telepathically to J'Onn, he coordinated with the Martian.

{The frontal attack strategy is useless, J'Onn,} Batman said. {Can you read his mind and find out something about the worm creatures? That's our target!}

{This being's mental shields are formidable,} J'Onn answered. {I can sense a mind within this metal shell, but I cannot read it. Have you noticed anything that may be of help to us?}

{The staff. I think that the staff is the key. Separate him from it!}

{That will be difficult!}

{I have an idea!} Batman answered.

He didn't have very go far. He was drawn to a building. Inside, he saw a prism of energy. Imprisoned within the confines of that prism were dozens of small, blue skinned men with large heads. They wore monastic robes. Something told Hal that these men were the source of the summoning. He wondered what to do. Logic told him that if they were prisoners of Terminus, then they would probably be on his side. 'The enemy of my enemy is my friend.' He mused.

Lashing out with the power of his ring, he shattered the prism. The little blue men fell to the ground. The Green Lantern rushed to check on them. "Are you all right?"

They looked disoriented. One of them was a little more focused than the others. He nodded. "We are well enough. I am Ganthet. How long have we been held here?"

"I'm not sure," Green Lantern said. "A long time. Decades at least."

Ganthet looked at the Green Lantern. "You are a human, are you not? I do not remember you. But that is irrelevant. Of all Green Lanterns, only you have answered our subconscious summons. Decades of your Earth time, you say? That is, fortunately, only the blink of an eye for us Guardians, and yet, still much too long for Terminus to reign here? Is here still in control?"

"My allies are fighting him as we speak," Green Lantern said, wondering what a 'Guardian' was.

"Then you must deactivate the main power battery, Green Lantern of Earth," the little Guardian said. "That is our only option now."

"Power battery?" Green Lantern asked.

As he spoke, Sentinel used his ring to create a mirrored reflector out of his Starheart power. As he did so, the Vision flew to face Terminus. He hovered before the giant.

"I am here, Terminus!" Vision said. "Strike me down, if you can."

Terminus pointed his staff and unleashed its terrible power. But Vision altered his molecular density and became ethereal as a ghost. The blast passed harmlessly through him. However, as Batman had planned, it struck the Starheart reflector and ricocheted back to its source. The powerful blast struck Terminus himself, damaging his armor and throwing the behemoth off balance.

{Now!} Batman ordered.

At that moment, Thor launched his hammer at Terminus's hand with all his incredible strength. The hammer hit its mark while Terminus was still stunned and distracted. Terminus' fingers involuntarily had a spasm, loosening their grip on the staff. At that precise second, the Martian Manhunter-who had been hovering near Terminus invisible-grabbed the end of the staff by expanding his arms via his natural shape-shifting ability. With a sudden, unexpected yank, J'Onn caused the staff to slip out of Terminus' grasp.

As Terminus regained his balance, and took a moment to register what had just happened, Thor and J'Onn got some distance between Terminus and his staff. Terminus bellowed in rage, and lumbered after the staff.

Obeying the Guardian, Hal fired his ring at a certain frequency that only the Guardians knew. When the beam hit the power battery, its green glow ceased. The battery shut down. The Green Lantern suddenly felt the power of his ring fade and he fell to the ground with a thud. "Ouch!"

Hundreds of Green Lanterns from all over space had just returned to Oa, in response to the emergency summons of their master Terminus. The massive army of ringed warriors converged on the planet, intent on killing the intruders who dared try and challenge their master. They were about to begin the slaughter!

But then their powers suddenly faded. Their rings went dead and the Green Lantern Corps fell to Oa powerless.

Terminus himself was also affected by the neutralizing of the power battery. His staff had been a conduit between the battery and himself, much as the Corps rings were. Stripped of both his staff and the replenishing power of the Battery, Terminus felt the nearly unlimited power of his armor begin to quickly ebb. He had a moment of panic. What should he do? He had come to rely on the battery for power.

As he hesitated, Thor, J'Onn and the Sentinel combine their powers and focused their attack on the damaged section of Terminus' armor. Together, they managed to rip open the front of the prodigious armored shell.

And out fell the real Terminus. He was not nearly as large as they expected. His head was of considerable size and took up most of the space within the gigantic helmet. But he had no real body to speak of. Only vestigial limbs protruding from the lower part of that big head. He had yellowish, wrinkled skin, and no hair. Two large eyes and a wide mouth made his flat nose look diminutive.

As the thing that called itself Terminus fell out of the armor, it screamed as it tumbled down. The being used its telekinetic power to lower itself to the ground safely. When it touched down, its little limbs couldn't seem to support it. It couldn't walk. Its arms and legs waving like a baby in the crib. It then began to levitate itself.

"You've ruined everything!" the large headed creature wailed in misery. "You upstart, alien slime!"

The baffled JLA members were at a loss for what to say.

Ganthet explained the situation. "The creature who christened himself Terminus was part of an experiment performed by galactic beings known as Celestials. They were studying the virtues of Order and Chaos. Terminus represented chaos, and the belief that life developed and evolved only through conflict and war. The other side of the experiment was the Star Conqueror, who represented order and conformity.

"Terminus was smaller but had greater intellect. He had the idea of traveling around from planet to planet and starting wars, hoping that the particular planets he visited would develop outstanding warriors. He created the armor of Terminus for the purpose of returning to the plants and testing them. But he found this undertaking too much for one being.

"When we Guardians of the Universe sent the Corps to stop him, he came to Oa, and with the help of the traitorous Sinestro - who used to be our greatest soldier - pirated the energy of the power battery, imprisoning us. He neutralized the Corps. Then, after finding and genetically altering the worm creatures of Andromeda, which he used for mind control, he enslaved the Corps. The worms crawled into the ear of each Corps member and into their brain, making them a slave of Terminus. Then, after returning their power to them, Terminus sent them out, with Sinestro as their field captain. They tested the planets he had altered, to see if they had evolved into the perfect warriors he had hoped for. It was important to him. You see, whichever of the two - Terminus or the Star Conqueror - lost their 1000-year competition, would be destroyed. And the Star Conqueror is doing far better."

"Slaves of the Star Conqueror recently came to Earth," J'Onn said.

"Then you must return there at once," the Guardian said. "For the beast itself will not be far behind!"

The starfish-like parasites of the Star conqueror had spread all over Western Europe and the British Isles. Latching on to the faces of humans, they turned men and women into obedient slaves of the Star being. They all existed as part of a massive hive-mind. They comprised a vast unified intellect. They all thought the same thoughts, and all served the same master. It was perfect order!

Heroes from all over the world rushed to Europe to try and help. The Fantastic Four was first and others followed. They tried to stop the growing legions of slaves who marched to their will of their master's voice. The enslaved humans forcible put starfish parasites onto other human's, thus increasing the Star Conquerors army. His goal was to have the entire planet exist as one being. No individuality or conflict. Just order!

The remaining eight members of the JLA rushed to face the gargantuan Star Conqueror personally. They were stunned by its scope. They'd never seen anything so enormous! Captain Marvel and Icon rammed into the leviathan with all their amazing power, but the beast didn't even seem to react to their fruitless attack.

One of the Starfish creatures was spit out of the beast and latched onto Icon's face. Icon became its slave.

"Uh oh!" Captain Marvel said, recognizing the imminent danger.

Icon attacked Captain Marvel, who tried to defend himself without hurting Icon. As that was going on, Firebird was also enslaved by a starfish parasite. She turned her power on Cap who blocked the fiery blast with his shield. Wonder Woman struck Firebird, knocking her unconscious.

"Forgive me, little sister," she said, regretfully.

"Thanks, Wonder Woman," Cap said. "Now go and help Captain Marvel! See if you can free Icon."

After Iron Man tried another useless attack on the massive beast, he pulled back to rethink. Mantis shouted up to him.

"This one senses a unified intelligence at work," Mantis said. "The minds of many have become one."

"Just great," Iron Man said. "I wish I could figure out how knowing that would help us."

Just then, a portal opened. The rest of the JLA, along with the Green Lantern, appeared.

"I know how to stop it!" J'Onn said. "There is only one possible method! We must fight it with individuality!"

J'Onn stood before Captain America, and put a hand on Cap's head. He telepathically contacted all the other heroes in the area, as well as any free humans on the nearby islands!

{Listen to me, everyone! Concentrate with all your will power. I am going to funnel your various thoughts through Captain America and then into the mind of the Star Conqueror itself!}

J'Onn chose Cap as his conduit for two reasons. One was the confidence that Cap inspired in everyone. The second reason was Cap's incredible passion for freedom. Cap had fought for decades against megalomaniacs who would dominate others. Freedom and liberty were what Cap existed for. He would never give in! He would see a free world or die!

And then the Star Conqueror felt it . . . The incredible, unfamiliar power of individuality! So many minds, so many opinions and wants and needs and desires. It was a chaotic mass of conflicting, horrible wonderful minds. It was so unlike the order that the Star conqueror wanted to bring. It was agony!

With a sound that could only be called a scream, the Star Conqueror utilized his gravity controlling power and levitated himself back into the stratosphere. He wanted no more of these Earth minds. Once out of Earth's atmosphere, the beast whisked itself far away from Earth s fast as it could go!

Once it was gone, all its starfish parasite creatures became inert and dropped off their victims. They appeared dead. All the former slaves of the Star conqueror were freed.

There was a lot of damage to be repaired. The Flash raced around the continent of Europe to oversee rescue efforts. Captain America spoke on the airwaves, to reassure the people of the world that the siege was over and the enemy was gone. Not only that, but a new hero had emerged from the chaos. Cap introduced the newest member of the JLA . . . Green Lantern!