The hatch doors secured behind him, Clark tries to scan the perfectly dark area for any sign of life. In an instant, he finds himself in a glass enclosure, as a voice sounds over him: Decontamination commencing. A blast something vaporous covers Clark for a moment before dissipating into the vents. The door opens and the voice speaks again: Decontamination complete. Suddenly, a path of lights springs to view. It leads him forward, and deeper into this twisted mechanical horror show he was now captive in. After walking for what seemed like hours, Clark finally senses himself at the journey's end. Stopping, he again looks around the room, noticing panels of controls dimly light, and inactive monitor screens standing dark in the distance. The light disappears momentarily, and is then replaced with a low-level red sun lamp covering the totality of the bridge. Clark grimaces at this feeling of the artificial radiation, now slowly starting its depowering effect. Out of the compartment's wall, Brainiac's newly rendered physical form materializes.

"Greetings, Kal-El. I see you made the logical choice for your adoptive world's best interests."

Still gritting his teeth at the feeling of the red sun lamp, he darts his eyes to the source

Brainiac replies to the gesture "That was to insure your compliance, and to put you into a more adequate state for study."

An alert comes across the screen "Second wave ready to deploy in 00:59 seconds" Clark furrowed an eyebrow at this.

Brainiac extends himself a mere few inches away from Clark's face, as he continues his malicious diatribe. "Our escape must be insured as well. Your friends may have bested my first distraction, but the next will not be nearly as easy to overcome. Make no mistake; any attempt to free yourself while we are preparing for deep space travel will result in the death of this planet. I can have betas all over this world ready to level it before you could even get out of this room. Now, if you would please take your place in the observation cell, we can leave without incident."

Superman stood there, his angry expression now unshakable, still not having said anything (and the clock now at 00:40 seconds to deployment). Brainiac, losing patience, now further harasses Clark "Such base level shows of emotion are pointless Kal-EL. They change nothing; don't let your hubris damn this world to destruction, just get in the cell..."

At this moment, Superman crushes 2 capsules he had been hiding in his mouth the entire time, spewing the combined contents into Brainiac's face. Instantly, the light in the cabin disappears, the clock stops, and the monitors switch over to a distress beacon. All of the power now diverted to the cabin and to the defensive systems meant to maintain the sterility necessary for Brainiac to function. Confusion sets in, as the multiple alerts overwhelm Brainiac's programing. The robotic voice sounds again: Foreign microbes detected; enacting cleansing protocol..." Superman summons a blast of heat vision straight through the main console, stopping the programs designed to save Brainiac dead in their tracks and shorting out his exterior force fields in one fell swoop.

Finally, Clark shouts into his communicator "John, are you in position?"

Green Lantern answers quickly "Ready and waiting"

Clark replies "Do it!"

At this John summons a massive magnet out of his power ring, ripping a hull door off. Clark's ear tuned to the commotion, as he darts around the cabin laying shots into Brainiac to further disorient him, before grabbing him (detaching him fully from the ship powered by his very thoughts) and flying him out of the cabin at super speed and out into the open sky below. Visibly affected by the foreign bacteria and the blows he had sustained, he begins addressing Clark in a glitched tone "You have only prolonged the inevitable. If I don't get to leave the world with you as my prize Kal-El, Earth will fall like all the other..." Suddenly, Brainiac disappears. Off slightly in the distance, Bruce makes a pass in the Javelin, having timed his position and use of the Phantom Zone Projector (now plugged into an auxiliary weapons port aboard the craft) impeccably. Brainiac was now confined to the dimensional wasteland that was the home of the universe's most vile entities. Bruce makes a saluting motion at Clark, as he makes a loop to set the aircraft down. Smiling, Clark turns to see the Skull Ship now in free fall into the ocean, watching it as it descends into its watery grave.

The door to the infirmary slides open, as Clark and Barry enter to find J'onn reclining comfortably on his bed. Cheerfully, Clark addresses him "Glad to see you looking well my friend"

Silently, J'onn nods. "I see our plan succeeded. Amazing that in all his advancements, Brainiac was no match for something as simple as the cellular division of invasive microflora."

Barry chimes in "Well, we never would have known that had he not tried to psychically disable you J'onn. The chemistry was the easy part."

J'onn agrees "Indeed. Such is the risk of inter-psychic contact; keeping anything hidden is a task in itself. His mental faculties were strong, but he was too focused on his attack. Whole areas of his neural network were left exposed; thankfully there was something useful being left undefended."

Clark turns to Barry "Say, what did you and Bruce put into those capsules?"

Barry replies with a smile "Clostridium perfringens as well as an accelerant... or more simply put, we gave him a massive case of food poisoning" Barry smiles

Intrigued, Clark raises an eyebrow. Barry continues "Those cells have the shortest division time in nature, and adding some of my hyperactive hemoglobin as a carrying agent to speed the cellular multiplication along would cause enough chaos within the Skull Ship's sterile areas to overwhelm Brainiac, making him easier to neutralize"

Clark adds in a concluding thought "Well, he won't be doing any more damage where he is now. The Phantom Zone is the best way to deal with threats like him. Bruce cut it awful close following those probes out of Metropolis, but I never doubted he'd make it back in time."

Turning to Clark, Barry inquires "Speaking of Bruce, where was he for the debriefing?"

Clark shrugs "He said he had something urgent to attend to back in Gotham, something pertaining to that probe Diana took down I would imagine..."

Walking up to the door of Wayne Manor, Diana has an aura of anxious excitement about her. After a short knock, Alfred answers "Good evening, Miss Prince. Such a pleasure to see you again"

Smiling at the butler, she replies "Thank you Alfred. So can I expect any details about why Bruce asked me here tonight from you or...?"

"If you step this way miss, all will be revealed." He said as he led her through the manor to a set of high, closed doors. Upon opening one, she finds Bruce seated at the end of a long table, several courses she recognized the aroma of as being from her native Grecian culture set out upon it, with a fire roaring in the background.

Raising an eyebrow to this site before her, and smiling broadly, she inquires "Bruce, you... Really had to make up for that first date comment, didn't you?" chuckling slightly

Through his signature smirk, he replies "As promised"

She takes a seat across from him, looking at him as contentedly as he is her. Alfred appears beside them with a bottle of wine, ready to fill up the glasses at their sides. She gives the butler another knowing smile, as she turns to Bruce, asking "What shall we drink to?"

Smiling at her, Bruce responds "To taking the final step."

The End