Natasha moved quickly, her suit's cloaking system keeping her invisible to the ship's scanners. The corridors pulsed with eerie neon-green light, the walls shifting, breathing like a living organism.
She was deep in the heart of Brainiac's vessel now—inside the Mainframe Core.
Massive tendrils of alien machinery coiled around a floating sphere of energy. It was the ship's brain. If this thing went down, so would Brainiac's entire army.
Her visor flickered.
[Structural Weaknesses Detected.]
[Charge Placement Optimized.]
Natasha grinned. "Let's see you adapt to this."
She moved fast, placing the explosives in key locations. Each one was lined with Stark's best micro-singularity tech. The moment they detonated, they'd erase everything around it from existence.
A robotic voice echoed overhead.
"Intruder detected."
Natasha cursed under her breath. 'Time to move.'
The ship's walls split open, revealing dozens of Brainiac's sentries. Glowing green eyes locked onto her.
She pressed a button on her wrist.
Beep.
The charges were armed. Ten seconds.
Natasha smirked. "Too late, asshole."
She turned and sprinted down the corridor, her suit activating super speed. In a flash of blue light, she blured forward, dodging incoming fire.
Seven seconds.
The exit hatch was sealed shut.
Natasha flipped mid-run, pulling out a magnetic disc and hurling it at the door. The explosive attached instantly...
BOOM!
The door ripped open.
Three seconds.
She dived into space just as...
[BOOOOOOOM!!!]
Behind her, the entire ship erupted.
A chain reaction tore through the vessel as explosions cascaded outward. Massive chunks of debris scattered into the void, engulfed in fire and neon-green energy.
Natasha twisted mid-air, stabilizing herself as she watched the destruction unfold. A massive vortex appeared, swallowing the exploding ship.
It worked.
Across the battlefield, Brainiac's forces collapsed.
The drones that had been overwhelming Tigra and Ami Han stopped mid-air and watched the nice view. The warships lost control, spiraling helplessly before detonating. The massive battle station shuddered, its weapons fizzling out.
Hazmat blinked. "No way…"
Ami Han narrowed her eyes. "The ship is gone."
Clint pumped his fist. "HELL YES!"
The tide of battle had shifted in an instant.
The heroes regrouped, floating in the wreckage-filled space, catching their breath. Selina, Harley, and Morgan flew to them.
Natasha activated her comm. "The creep is down."
Harley grinned. "Damn, Nat. Never thought I'd say this, but I love you."
Selina smirked. "You actually did it."
Morgan, arms crossed, watched the scene in silence. Although the vortex was swallowing the ship, she could sense a life force inside, completely unharmed.
"It's over," Tigra murmured.
Then...
A slow, mechanical hum vibrated through space.
A pulse of green light erupted from the vortex.
Morgan's eyes widened. "No… not yet."
From the debris of the destroyed flagship…
Brainiac emerged.
His body hovered above the remains of his ship, completely intact.
The fires of the explosion licked at his form but did nothing. His biomechanical plating shimmered, repairing itself instantly. His four mechanical appendages extended outward, his eyes burning with eerie intelligence.
The damage was meaningless.
"Fascinating. You have exceeded projections."
He turned toward them, his glowing gaze locking onto Natasha.
"A human… with no powers. And yet, you have undone my fleet. Impressive."
His head tilted slightly.
"It is unfortunate that your victory… is irrelevant."
The air around him crackled.
A surge of energy radiated from his body.
A moment later...
His ship began to rebuild itself as the vortex disappeared.
The wreckage reversed, shattered metal pulling itself back together. The debris reformed, reshaping into a new structure. Even the deactivated drones were stirring.
Morgan's expression darkened. "Oh, hell no."
She raised her hand...
BOOM!
A golden blast of energy erupted from her palm, shooting straight at Brainiac.
The attack slammed into him...
...And stopped.
Brainiac lifted a single hand, absorbing the blast into his palm. The energy dissipated into his systems.
He looked at her.
"Ah. You are the anomaly."
Morgan clenched her fists, power crackling around her. "You talk too much."
Brainiac's eyes gleamed.
"Let us test that hypothesis."
He moved.
In an instant, he was in front of her.
Morgan barely had time to react.
Brainiac's hand collided with her chest.
BOOOOM!
The impact launched her across the battlefield. She crashed into a nearby asteroid, the force carving straight through it.
Harley's eyes widened. "MORGAN!"
But Brainiac was already moving.
Faster than light.
His limbs extended, striking out toward the others.
Natasha dodged at the last second, flipping through the void. Ami Han transformed into pure energy, phasing through the attack. Tigra barely leaped away as one of his mechanical arms sliced through the remains of a warship like butter.
Clint fired another arrow...
It never reached him.
Brainiac caught it mid-air.
He crushed it in his fist.
Hazmat unleashed a wave of bio-energy...
Brainiac absorbed it.
His eyes flashed. "I have adapted." Then, he unleashed it back. The same radioactive blast erupted from his body, ten times stronger.
Hazmat barely had time to scream before it slammed into her. But Morgan was already there. She swiped her hand. A wave of energy rippled through the air, nullifying Brainiac's attack.
"How dare you zucchini-looking octopus hurt my Morgan?" Harley blasted forward in anger.
...
Harley Quinn was always lighthearted. Hell, she rarely gets angry and always laughs while pranking around almost everywhere, pulling everyone into her zone.
But right now?
She was the angriest.
And Brainiac was about to learn what happened when you pissed off Harley freakin' Quinn.
Brainiac barely had time to process the incoming attack.
One second, Harley was floating in space.
The next...
Baaam!!!
Her fist collided with his face.
The sheer force of the impact sent a shockwave through the void, ripping apart debris, distorting the space around them. Brainiac's body crumpled inward from the punch, his adaptive plating shattering as he was hurled through his own drones.
Harley wasn't done.
She appeared behind him before he even reached the wreckage.
With a wicked grin, she grabbed the back of his head...
Baam!
She slammed his skull straight into a nearby asteroid. The rock exploded on impact, reduced to molten dust as the force tore through it like paper.
Brainiac barely had time to register what was happening.
This wasn't possible.
He had adapted. He had countermeasures.
And yet...
Harley Quinn was tearing him apart.
Adaptation? Useless.
Brainiac recalculated mid-fall.
His systems instantly adjusted. His body restructured, reinforcing itself with an impenetrable energy matrix. His arms extended, weaponizing.
A thousand attacks launched at once...
Lasers. Plasma. Kinetic force. Gravity distortions. Anti-matter disintegration beams.
Harley walked through it all.
Not dodging.
Not blocking.
She just took it.
And nothing happened.
Not a scratch.
Not a bruise.
Not even a single burned hair.
Morgan's eyes widened. 'Holy shit… She's finally doing it.'
Selina grinned, "She's using the sun."
"Luckily, that freak didn't upgrade himself with that monster we fought," Morgan said with a smile.
Harley Quinn, the insane clown princess of Gotham, had unlocked her full Kryptonian potential.
And Brainiac?
He was screwed.
Harley exploded forward.
Her fists blurred... too fast to track, too powerful to withstand.
BOOM!
A punch to Brainiac's ribs... his exoskeleton cracked, collapsing in on itself.
BOOM!
Another to his spine... his limbs twitched, overloaded with broken signals.
BOOM!
She kicked him in the chest, sending him flying, obliterating everything in his path.
BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!
A barrage.
An onslaught.
Each hit stronger than the last, each blow undoing his entire existence.
Brainiac tried to teleport.
Harley grabbed him mid-phase.
"Oh no, ya don't, spaghetti man."
She ripped him out of the teleportation field and...
BOOOOOOOM!!!
She piledrived him through another asteroid.
Morgan and the others just… watched.
Tigra blinked. "We're not even needed, are we?"
Clint shook his head. "Nope."
Ami Han let out a low whistle. "I'd almost feel bad for Brainiac."
Hazmat grinned. "Almost."
Morgan smirked but said nothing.
Because she knew.
Harley wasn't done.
Brainiac was barely functioning now.
His adaptive algorithms were overloaded. His neural processors were failing.
For the first time in his entire existence, he felt fear.
Harley floated before him, cracking her knuckles. "What's wrong, Bri-Bri? Thought ya adapted?"
Brainiac's eyes flickered. "I… am… Brainiac…"
Harley tilted her head. "And I'm Harley goddamn Quinn."
She grinned and blinked. Brainiac didn't even have the time to react when she grabbed his head and squeezed. His body convulsed. The energy matrix collapsed.
And then...
CRACK!!!
She ripped his head clean off.
Brainiac's body twitched. His limbs sparked. His processors went silent.
His body detonated.
A final explosion. A last, desperate act of defiance.
Harley hovered there, Brainiac's severed head still in her grip, untouched by the blast.
She smirked.
"And that's how ya kill an alien octopus."
Everything was still.
Brainiac's forces were gone. His warships, erased. His empire, finished.
Harley turned, tossing Brainiac's head over her shoulder. Then she flew to Morgan and began to check her body for any injuries. "Ya, aren't hurt, are ya, kiddo?"
"I am alright. I just got a little careless," Morgan said with a smile.
"Sooo… who's hungry?" Harley turned around.
Selina burst out laughing.
Morgan shook her head, smiling. "You're a menace."
Tigra let out a breath. "I can't believe that just happened."
Ami Han chuckled. "I can."
Clint smirked. "Dibs on never fighting her."
Hazmat grinned. "Agreed."
Natasha landed beside them, arms crossed. She looked Harley up and down.
"…Not bad."
Harley wiggled her brows. "Admit it, ya love me."
Just then Bruce and The Fallen One teleported there. Bruce looked around, "Ok. What did I miss?"
---
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