"Can these people still be saved?" Superman asked Thea, his voice heavy with reluctance.
"They've been dead for a long time." Thea examined them closely. The moment the mosquitoes and flies bit them, they were already gone. These people weren't fighting some ordinary pathogen—they were facing the Rot itself. Even the smallest trace of this source-twisted corruption was far beyond what ordinary humans could withstand.
The superheroes all held to their no-kill principle, and though these people were already dead, none of them could bring themselves to strike. Thea didn't particularly care either way, but she found the scene rather stomach-turning and didn't want to dirty her hands.
Two phone calls to the White House and the Pentagon later, Thea—no longer concerned about exposing her identity—gained supreme command over all military forces in Wyoming.
Using military satellites and her super-vision, Thea began coordinating the troops to eliminate the walking corpses.
All frontline units were equipped with thermal imaging. Many of the mosquitoes and flies had a habit of hiding inside the corpses' bodies. During lulls in combat, Batman developed a device that emitted infrasonic waves to kill the insects en masse. Using local manufacturing equipment, he produced five units in one go and distributed them to the troops.
The heroes swept the skies and ground clear of the swarm while the army, under Thea's efficient command, slowly but steadily reclaimed the city.
The entire state of Wyoming had suffered catastrophic damage. Conservative estimates put the death toll at one hundred thousand out of five hundred thousand residents. Economic losses were incalculable. Yellowstone National Park, a famous landmark, had been dealt a devastating blow—several canyons and waterfalls were now occupied by rotting animals, and the hot springs, geysers, pools, and fumaroles were all clogged with plasma and unidentifiable black sludge.
Seeing this made Thea feel a pang of regret. Yellowstone's scenery was beautiful—one of the few American attractions Diana actually liked.
With another potential date spot gone, Miss Queen felt a twinge of disappointment. After a brief discussion, the heroes agreed they needed to completely eradicate the swarm. Even a single escaped mosquito could deal a devastating blow to human society.
Superman locked onto the insects' sound signature and began using his super-hearing to hunt down stragglers.
Thea drew inspiration from Batman's infrasonic mosquito-killer and unleashed two low-frequency Canary Cries, personally demonstrating what it meant to use a sledgehammer to crack a nut. Using such a high-level spell against insects was probably unprecedented.
The five heroes continuously swept the perimeter while ground forces advanced steadily with methodical precision. After confirming no insects had escaped, they finally pushed toward the source of the outbreak—Campbell County.
This county, spanning over ten thousand square kilometers with a population of thirty thousand and named after Wyoming Territory's first governor, had been transformed into a heavily desertified wasteland.
Thea called a halt to the ground forces. What lay ahead was beyond their capability to handle. A force of death swirled above the city, accompanied by faint ripples of divine power.
From the initial discovery of the insect plague to their current counterattack, transforming a city into a ghost town in less than half a day wasn't difficult. The challenge lay in the terrain destruction. Yellow sand billowed, heat waves surged, and even the wind carried a scorching, deathly stillness. This place could pass for the Middle East—who would believe that half a day ago, this was where the Rocky Mountains met the Wyoming plains? After all, "Wyoming" came from a Native American word.
Mountains and valleys with a desert in between? Ancient Native Americans would never name it that unless they were blind. The power to transform seas into wastelands and cities into deserts in half a day could only belong to a deity.
This must be the territory of Set, the Storm God that Poison Ivy and Zatanna had mentioned—some god from who-knows-what pantheon. Thea remained cautious, though not afraid.
She'd even dared to roll up her sleeves and fight Hades himself. This Storm God, dead for countless years and now drafted by the Rot, was nothing in comparison.
Thea had originally wanted Batman to coordinate from the rear, but that resourceful bastard had somehow remotely piloted his Batwing all the way to Wyoming. Swamp Thing could weave vines into wings, and Animal Man could mimic birds. All five of them could fly—more or less—so they continued forward as a group.
After flying for less than ten minutes, the city of the dead at the desert's heart finally revealed itself.
Black and brown dominated the entire vista. The ground was coated in thick plasma. The blood had lost all vitality—what should have been the vibrant red of life had turned deep black. Bone structures were everywhere, human and animal skeletons piled haphazardly together in a grotesque architectural style.
Walking corpses still shambled through the "city." Many mountain animals had also been infected. Under the Rot's control, humans and beasts alike had abandoned their natural behaviors, mindlessly patrolling with no thought or purpose until their bodies completely decomposed.
Several birds circled overhead on patrol. Without super-vision, the heroes only realized when they drew closer that these weren't birds at all—they were human heads with spinal columns attached to rotting avian corpses. The rot-birds spotted Thea and the others, screeching harshly before diving toward them in a frenzy.
These things weren't fast fliers. Their ability to disgust far exceeded their lethality.
A few shots from the Batwing brought them all down. The heroes weren't here for a friendly visit. Since they'd been discovered anyway, there was nothing more to discuss. Time to fight!
Thea stopped holding back and opened with Meteor Storm. Combining earth and fire elements, ordinary mages could only summon one as a finishing move. She summoned twenty in one breath, raining them down into the rotting city.
The meteors, carrying tremendous kinetic energy and flames, crashed into the most densely populated areas of walking corpses. Many rotting humans and animals were vaporized by the high temperatures.
But the next moment, even more corrupted creatures surged out of the city. On the Rot's home turf, Swamp Thing and Animal Man's powers were severely weakened. Both were barely maintaining their transformations. Fortunately, Batman the hack had anticipated this and made preparations.
Batman had modified a venom canister from his old enemy Bane and given it to Swamp Thing, who now fought while carrying a large tank on his back—looking rather odd. The tank was filled with Batman's plant formula, which when refined slightly could tap into the Green. As long as he didn't disconnect the tube, Swamp Thing could still fight.
Animal Man didn't have such an "external boost," but his requirements weren't as strict as Swamp Thing's. He could still unleash about forty or fifty percent of his power.
Batman's aircraft wasn't very effective against the suicidally fearless rotting humans and animals, so he chose to provide perimeter support.
The main assault was left to Thea and Superman. Heat vision can't bend around corners, so it was somewhat limited; Superman began using his freeze breath for large-scale crowd control.