Shazam, Blue Beetle, and Hawkman were the only ones still unharmed. The Batman Who Laughs Gordon had not taken part in this operation; he was elsewhere with The Batman Who Laughs.
As they watched Luthor approach step by step, fear unexpectedly rose in the hearts of all three. The feeling made them want to burst out laughing, because they could no longer sense even the slightest trace of humanity from Luthor. That contradiction scraped at everyone's nerves.
With every step the bald man took forward, the three took a step back, because Luthor's body had begun to morph like a Martian's. He became a giant over four meters tall.
Luthor glanced at them, threw a Smoke Bomb before Shazam could attack him with magic, and vanished from the spot in an instant.
Immediately afterward, Blue Beetle suddenly clutched his head and collapsed.
"No! The Reach's technology has been cracked! His computer is hacking into me in reverse!"
Blue Beetle curled into a ball on the ground, clutching his head as he desperately tried to sever the network connection. Once someone took control of his armor, he would be little better than crippled.
His armor was actually a kind of alien insect called a Scarab. Broadly speaking, these bugs were somewhat like Symbiotes.
The Scarabs had originally been weapons of war created by the cosmic plundering race known as the Reach. They possessed their own intelligence. They were often bestowed upon the champions of certain planets as gifts from aliens, only to secretly control them and turn them into the Reach's "ultimate infiltrators."
Their true form was roughly the size of an Earth wristwatch, though their appearance could change in countless ways. "Kaji Dha" was their activation command. As long as the host spoke the phrase, the Scarab would instantly transform