Chapter 48
World's Mightiest
Back inside the spaceship, Izuku was on the losing side in the battle against Brainiac. The boy was showing signs of fatigue and even had injuries on some parts of his body as he knelt down in front of Brainiac, who was still in a healthy condition. There were four metal tentacles coming out of the cyborg's back.
"He's… strong…!" thought Izuku.
"You are a disappointment," Brainiac said to him. "After having observed you for a while, I expected you to perform better than this."
"I haven't showed you everything yet!" Izuku angrily said to him as he stood back up. He wondered in his head if he should use more power, but given what he knew about Brainiac so far from their fight, he knew that simply increasing the power output of his Quirk wouldn't do any good against Brainiac because of the latter's force field. He had to find a way around that first before fighting with more power.
"I have seen enough," said Brainiac as one of the tentacles pointed directly at Izuku. "While I am disappointed with the result, there is still a use for you. There is something different about your Quirk when compared to the other ones of this world, and it is something worth looking into."
"I'm not your lab rat! You're not going to dissect me!" said Izuku as he began to channel power throughout his body for another round against the villain.
The tentacle shot forward at a fast speed, but Izuku leaped into the air fast before falling towards Brainiac to hit him with a flying kick. However, his powered up kick failed to make it through the cyborg's force field, and he bounced back instead. Before he even hit the floor, the tentacle from before caught him. "Oh no!"
All of a sudden, there was the sound of crashing, surprising both of them. A few seconds later, a part of the wall burst open, and All Might and Superman stepped in. Izuku was surprised and overjoyed to see them and called out to their names. "I knew you would come!"
Looking at the two, All Might angrily said to Brainiac, "Let the boy go at once!"
"So you have come," said Brainiac. "Not what I am hoping to happen, but I still expected this to happen eventually."
Suddenly, there was a blue blur rushing towards Brainiac, and before the cyborg knew it, the tentacle holding onto Izuku was torn off. The boy was now on the side of the heroes. "Are you all right?" Superman asked Izuku as he removed the tentacle from him.
"I'm all right, Superman. Thank you for saving me!" Izuku happily said to him while trembling in both shock and happiness. "I knew the both of you would come save me!"
"I'm glad you're all right, Young Midoriya!" All Might said to him while patting his shoulder. "You have done well to hold out until now, but you no longer have to be afraid. Why? Because we both are here!"
"I know you can defeat him, All Might!" Izuku said to the hero with confidence.
"Don't worry; we will definitely defeat him!" Superman assured the boy.
The heroes then turned to Brainiac, who was undaunted. "Two of the strongest heroes from their respective worlds both here at once… Taking out of the both of you here will be a hard task… for a being of lesser intellectual."
"You always say that, Brainiac, but you still lost," Superman said to him. "Your intelligence won't do you any good if you do not have the power to back it up!"
"While I do agree having a brilliant mind is important, there are times when muscle power is necessary," All Might said to him. "You better hope you have the strength to take on the both of us at once, before we will not be holding back on you after all that you've done!"
Having said that, All Might charged at Brainiac to punch him, but his fist collided with the latter's force field and came to a stop.
"Only the lower intellect would think that physical force is the answer to victory, but if you insist, I shall give you that kind of death!" said Brainiac before unleashing his tentacles at him. The broken one had repaired itself somehow. All Might moved out of the way fast to avoid some of the tentacles when they swung at him, and after doing that, Superman attacked then tentacles with his heat vision, blowing off some of them.
The broken tentacles fixed themselves in a short amount of time through regeneration as if they were organic materials, and then they headed for Superman. The latter avoided them fast and tried to punch Brainiac, only for the force field to stop his fist as well.
All Might joined in with punching the force field, and both powerhouse heroes did not stop their attacks at all. Brainiac simply stood there, watching those two doing what seemed to be useless over and over. Izuku watched from where he was intensely while rooting for them.
As the two heroes kept on punching the force field, it began to flicker and even change color. Brainiac then used his tentacles to grab onto a wall at the back and then pulled himself to a safer distance to attack from there. Under his command, long, metal arms came down from the ceiling and the floor to attack the heroes.
One of the arms fired laser beams at Superman, who countered with his heat vision. The projectiles collided and tried to overpower each other. Superman's eventually won the struggle and collided with the arm, blowing it up.
Meanwhile, All Might moved at a fast speed to avoid the laser fired at him by the other arm. He ran in circle to the back of the arm and tore it off the floor with ease before flinging it at Brainiac, but his force field protected him.
More arms came out of the floor and the ceiling to fire laser beams at the two heroes, so they moved around swiftly to avoid them.
Superman grabbed one of the arms and directed its arm all over the place to destroy the other arms, and then he aimed it at Brainiac. Like always, it was unable to break through the latter's force field, and Superman tore off the arm and hurl it away a few seconds later.
All Might attempted punching his way through the force field again. "You are wasting your time, but I never expected anything smart from inferior beings like you in the first place," Brainiac said to him, musing his useless attempt at breaking down the force field.
"So what if I'm not the smartest man in the world? If I have to use force, then so be it! It has gotten me through problems before!" said All Might, ignoring what he said and keeping up his action.
Superman then joined Brainiac in punching the force field. The two heroes gave it their all to destroy the translucent sphere. Eventually, the force field started to flicker, which surprised Brainiac.
The Coluan took steps back to avoid what might happen next. That was when Izuku suddenly lunged at him and struck the force field with a powered-up punch. In doing so, the force field disappeared entirely, much to Brainiac's surprise. The two older heroes then lunged at Brainiac, punching him hard in the body at the same time and sending him across the place. In fact, he crashed through a wall.
CRASH!
"We did it!" exclaimed Izuku when he saw them two punching him out of the place.
"We sure did, and it was thanks to your help, Young Midoriya!" All Might said to him.
"As much as I want to celebrate too, I wouldn't be sure of our victory yet," Superman told them. "Brainiac can't go down that easily."
The heroes watched where Brainiac flew through and waited until they heard the sound of footsteps. The wall that Brainiac previously flew through burst open, and something came out from behind.
Standing before them was a large black machine about six meters tall with six legs and two arms. Near the top part of the machine was a glass cockpit, and Brainiac could be seen inside it. "This has gone far enough!" he angrily said. "I will not allow you to ruin everything I have planned out!"
"Whoa! It's so big!" said Izuku in shock.
"Nothing I haven't faced before," said Superman, undaunted. Turning to All Might, he asked him, "I hope this isn't too much for you."
"A bit of challenge is always nice! I actually can't wait to see how tough this thing is!" replied All Might.
"All right, then let's take it down together!" Superman said to him.
"You shall all perish!" said Brainiac. Missiles were fired from the wrists of the robot's arm, and the three heroes got out of the way. All Might ran up to the robot and punched it hard in the side, but it seemingly did nothing.
Superman also punched the robot, and it was a stronger punch that actually dent the surface.
Brainiac moved away a bit from the heroes and kept on firing missiles. They all dodged the missiles swiftly and would occasionally close in on the robot to hit it. All Might punched harder than before, and he was beginning to put dents on it. Izuku was making progress in damaging the robot as well.
"Enough!" said Brainiac angrily. The legs of the robot emitted electricity, and then powerful electricity was spread across the floor. The three got zapped by it and screamed in pain as they got paralyzed. It was even powerful enough to hurt Superman.
When the electricity to stop, they fell to their knees, and Brainiac used this opportunity to fire missiles at them. "You are finished!" he said.
Superman was struck first and got blown away, but when All Might as about to get it, he swung the back of his hand at the missile so hard that it went flying into the one that was going to hit Izuku and knocked it away. Standing back up, All Might said to Brainiac, "If you think a little jolt is going to bring me down for good, then you clearly aren't as smart as you think you are!"
He then leaped at the cockpit and punched it hard. Though he failed to shatter the glass, he punched so hard that the robot took some steps back. All Might proceeded to punch the front part of the robot over and over.
Eventually, the front part opened up to reveal multiple guns that began charging up energy. All Might moved back in surprise and braced himself to be shot, but Superman got in front of him in a blink of an eye and used himself as a shield to block the energy beams fired. The latter was strong enough to withstand the laser beams, even if it still hurts. He pulled up his cape in defense and walked against the beams until he was close to the guns, and then he unleashed his heat vision to destroy them.
Brainiac growled in frustration as he moved away from the heroes and then fired more missiles at them. All the while, the destroyed guns began repairing themselves. The heroes once again dodged the missiles. All Might also punched out strong wind to send some of them flying back to the robot, damaging it.
Just then, Brainiac robots showed up at the room to support their master. They were about to fire at the heroes when Izuku activated his power and jumped at one of them, kicking it so hard in the head that it was decapitated. Another one tried to shoot him, but he dodged the shot and then punched a hole in its body.
"Nice going, Young Midoriya!" All Might praised him. "I trust you can take care of those robots?"
"Leave them to me, All Might!" Izuku assured him.
"You have grown well! Keep it up!" his idol told him.
All Might and Superman turned back to Brainiac, and the former said, "All right! Let's continue where we left off, villain!"
"Confidence shall be your downfall!" the cyborg said to him. The robot pointed its hand at them, and then it released a bright flash that blinded them. They were immediately hit by what appeared to be energy blasts afterwards and blown back.
Both were fine, other than suffering burnt damage. Superman, after standing back up, charged at one of the hands to destroy it. The hand released another energy blast just as he was about to come in contact with it and got blown back again. All Might jumped at that hand immediately after that and slammed his fist onto it from above incredibly hard, so much that it was actually torn off from the body, much Brainiac's surprise.
Superman recovered from getting shot and went for the other hand. He punched the palm, where the energy blasts came from, before it could fire and destroyed it. With a powerful yank, he was able to tear off the arm.
"This is not over!" shouted Brainiac angrily in frustration. The legs of the robots slammed onto the floor hard to cover it in electricity. All Might and Superman leaped over the electricity and towards the cockpit, punching it hard.
Despite their powerful punches, they only managed to make cracks appear on the glass, but that was enough to make Brainiac scared.
The robot moved back while firing laser beams constantly from its repaired guns. Superman blocked the incoming beams with his cape and then used his Ice Breath again the guns, freezing them completely. All Might then punched the frozen guns hard, shattering them and leaving a hole on the robot's body.
Superman flew at the cockpit and punched it again, this time shattering the glass and reaching his hand inside to grab Brainiac by the neck, and then he pulled out the cyborg and flung him onto the floor.
Brainiac got back up with a look of shock that turned to frustration a second later. "This is unacceptable! Everything should've gone according to plan!" he angrily said.
"Villains' plans never succeed! I've been through enough victories to know this!" All Might said to him. Superman agreed with him.
Not willing to admit defeat, Brainiac let loose a couple of tentacles on his back at the two heroes. The heroes easily punched them away and then charged at Brainiac, who kept on fighting back with the tentacles to keep them at bay.
However, after getting punched several times by the heroes, the tentacles finally broke apart. Superman closed in on Brainiac and punched him hard across the face, sending him tumbling across the place and crashing into a control panel. He got back up and angrily glared at them, and then he noticed Izuku standing at the side. Thinking that he could take the boy hostage, he unleashed another tentacle in his direction.
Izuku wasn't one to get captured again, however. Channeling power into his leg, he kicked straight up at the claw in front of the tentacle with enough force to shatter it, much to Brainiac's surprise.
Brainiac then realized that All Might was standing in front of him with a look of anger. "Don't you dare lay a hand on my successor!" the latter angrily said to the former. Raising his fist and channeling a large amount of energy into it, he slammed down onto the villain before the latter could do anything, "Unite States of Smash!"
SMAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAASH!
The powerful punch sent Brainiac crashing through not only one floor, but several floors. He didn't come to a stop until he came to the lowest floor, but even that floor was damaged from his landing.
Superman, All Might, and Izuku gathered around the hole and looked down to see the unconscious Brainiac. "You… You did it, All Might!" said Izuku in excitement.
Before All Might and Superman could say anything about this, the whole place shook, and the lights blinked nonstop. "What's happening?!" asked All Might.
"This ship is crashing! Brainiac is in control of this ship so long as he is conscious, and when he is defeated and deactivated, the whole thing will crash!" replied Superman.
"It's going to crash onto the city?!" asked Izuku in shock.
"I'll move the spaceship to a safer location!" said Superman as he took off at a fast speed, crashing through a wall.
Outside, one could see sparks and explosions happening on the spaceship's exterior. They were wondering what was happening, and some of them though that it must be malfunctioning, which likely meant good news.
"Looks like Superman did it!" said the Flash.
"But it's going to crash onto the city, isn't it?" asked Eraser Head.
They saw Superman bursting out of the spaceship and flying underneath it. Using all his strength, the Kryptonian tried his best to lift the spaceship into the air or at least slow down its descend, all the while moving towards the outskirts of the city.
Fortunately, he wasn't too far away from the outskirt. After about a minute, he finally brought the spaceship to a large area that didn't have anything other than trees. He began descending until it was safe to drop the spaceship.
And so, the spaceship landed safely in the wilderness while continuing to release sparks and flames.
Superman then flew inside, which was beginning to go up in flames, and made his way back to All Might and Izuku. "You did it, Superman!" the latter happily said to him.
"Right, and let's rescue all the people Brainiac captured!" Superman told him.
TO BE CONTINUED