The Fall of Brainiac

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Superman's body crashed against the side of Brainiac's throne as the tendrils that had held him by the neck returned to the invader, who had kicked Batman across the entire room. As the two heroes staggered and struggled to their feet, they gritted their teeth and ran toward their enemy. Superman reeled back to unleash a punch as Batman tried to land an axe kick on him. Brainiac simply crossed his arms and allowed his metallic limbs and appendages to handle each hero.

Batman was grappled and slammed into the ground while Superman was cut off from meeting his goal, punching and swinging at the several tendrils that had been stabbing at him. One tendril had managed to grab him by the leg, slamming him into the ceiling and allowing him to crash onto the ground. Before Brainiac could finish Superman off, Clark fired his heat vision and burned through his shoulder.

What surprised Superman was that the damage he had done was healed almost immediately, rendering his attack useless. Taking a jab right to the jaw, Superman staggered further from Brainiac, who approached the last son of krypton with an impatient look... until he had stopped in his tracks, eyes widened as he turned around.

"Who.. Who dares?!" He shouts, preparing his tendrils to take him to a separate area in the ship...

He sensed that Kara Zor-El had been freed...

Before he could act any further, Superman grabbed Brainiac by the head and threw him back, causing Brainiac to fly and crash through the wall of the ship until his tendrils had caught him and helped him to his feet. Narrowing his eyes, Brainiac reached toward the ceiling and crashed his fist down, striking Clark with a giant beam that had emerged from the ceiling.

With Clark struggling against the laser, Batman threw several batarangs out toward Brainiac, who swatted most away, catching one with his two fingers.

"I won't let such primitive beings ruin my collection!" He shouted, crushing the batarang in his bare hand. Though, what had surprised Brainiac and caught him off guard, was that the batarang he crushed was a small E.M.P. One that had stunned Brainiac, giving Batman the opening he needed to disconnect him from his neural network. This caused Brainiac to lay limp on the ground...

...

...

...

As expected, the ships that had surrounded the Skull ship began to fall. Without any backup system for the ship, everything began to grow off balance...

Suddenly, the skull ship tilted toward the side, falling down into earth's atmosphere, being followed closely by the many ships that surrounded it.

Batman reached for his comms and narrowed his eyes. "This is Batman. Brainiac is down."

"The disruptor worked." Cyborg called back. "All the betas are shutting down."

As Superman caught Batman and helped him to a secure area, the ship only grew closer to crashing onto Earth's surface...

If the skull ship were to crash, every single world on it would be lost... But that was when Superman looked toward the throne.. With an idea.

"Clark, wait!"

"This ship is powered by thought, right?" Superman asked, grabbing two neural wires into his hands.

"Clark, don't be reckless! This could kill you!" Batman stated, looking up toward Clark... Who gave Batman a small grin.

"Sounds like a Job for Me."

And then, Superman stabbed the wires into his head, shouting out in pain as the ship began to overwhelm him from the advanced sciences and information that poured into him...

Such an action was something that Batman thought he would never see again... For that very moment, Superman.. Batman's best friend had returned... And was now sacrificing himself to save Earth, and the countless worlds that Brainiac had collected...

With Superman struggling in his control over the Skull ship, he had managed to just barely put the giant ship into auto pilot and prevent it from crashing down onto the city below, shattering every window in the area with just how fast the ship had been going...

As Batman stood up on his own two feet, he was surprised to see that the friend he had lost for so long had finally returned when they needed him most...

"Put the ship on Auto Pilot once we get into the open skies!" Batman instructed. Through gritted teeth, Superman nodded and tried to do as instructed... Until Batman turned around and took a powerful blow from Brainiac, who marched toward his throne with haste.

"Relinquish my ship, Kryptonian! I will not let you destroy my collection!"

As Batman tried to retaliate by throwing more E.M.P. batarangs, Brainiac avoided them and punched Batman in the face before kicking him in the stomach, causing him to stumble away and give Brainiac an opening to wrap a tendril around his neck and lift him up, choking him as the tentacle wrapped tightly around his throat while Batman clawed at the bindings for a chance to breathe...

"Surrender my ship back to me, and your ally may live. Now!" Brainiac demanded. Before Superman could respond, Brainiac cried out in pain as his back was violently ignited by heat vision.

The Arkham Knight took advantage of this opening and dropped an axe kick from above that knocked Brainiac down a bit, following it up with a powered kick to the abdomen. Stunned, Brainiac couldn't regain focus as he was knocked into Kara's fist. Making him stumble into the Arkham knight as he used his knife to slash at Brainiac's knee and force him to kneel and take another hit from Supergirl. As he tried to use his arms to retaliate, Arkham used two gadgets to hit him with a magnetic pulse to temporarily pin him down and force him to take the assault.

While Batman tried to recover, he and Superman watched as the two never let Brainiac have a second to focus, or even think. The two functioned like one well oiled machine, each complementing each other. Arkham made sure that Brainiac remained stunned to take the brunt of Kara's punches and attacks. Kara made sure to keep hitting Brainiac harder and harder to prevent Brainiac from attacking Arkham and freeing himself. With Kara landing one final strike, an uppercut to the chin, Brainiac was out for the count.

The girl who has the hope to fight for a future, The boy who fights because he's stuck in his past.

Supergirl and Arkham Knight had managed to buy Superman enough time to free the cities from Brainiac's collection... Though unfortunately, some cities were lost for good...

With the last of his efforts being made, Superman collapsed onto the ground and groaned out in pain. As he crashed down, the rest of the Justice League made their way into the throne room...

Flash, Green Lantern, Aquaman, Black Adam, Wonder Woman, all of them walked and ran in to find out that Metropolis and Coast city were gone... Erased from the ship's data. Only one question remained on everyone's mind...

What do they do with Brainiac?

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