AUTHOR'S NOTE: Here we have the next Spotlight out of the three we've finished, and, as you can see, is the second of our two villain centric Spotlights.
DISCLAIMER: I own absolutely none of the properties you will see here. All rights go to their respective owners.
Infinity Verse Spotlight
Brightburn: I, Monster
It wasn't difficult for Brandon Breyer to accept that he was a god, and like most gods of old, he was a wrathful one. After killing his way through his hometown of Brightburn, Kansas, he initially had intended to lay low after causing the plane crash to cover his tracks, but after some thinking, the boy had an epiphany: Why should he hide? Does one hide when he steps on an ant? No, they do not. They step on them and keep going. That was what the human race was to Brandon. Merely insects that were under his foot, and he enjoyed stomping them.
Shortly after the massacre of his hometown was over, the superpowered psychopath had been moving from one small town to the next, slaughtering whatever he could find, whether that be man, woman or child. At first, he felt nothing as he took life after life, but the more he killed the humans around him, he began to have a sensation slowly overtake him: pleasure.
Every scream, every cry for mercy and the sight of every weeping family huddling together in sheer terror of his presence gave him a deep sense of satisfaction as he killed them slowly and painfully. Brandon especially enjoyed killing entire families, for it reminded him of when he murdered his adopted parents. Since making his presence known, the boy, who the media has now dubbed 'Brightburn' after his first rampage, had massacred his way through three towns and he was about to make his way toward his biggest target: Topeka.
The National Guard had been trying to stop him every step of the way, but they only added to his every growing body count, now well into the thousands. It wasn't before long that the military was forced to pull back as the superhuman child finally approached his destination, focusing instead on evacuation efforts. However, Brightburn's superhuman speed allowed him to arrive while the National Guard was still in the midst of trying to move the civilians out of the city.
As Brandon floated in mid-air at the city before him, he couldn't help but smirk underneath his mask at the thought of the amount of death and destruction he was about to bring down upon these meatbags. With his advanced hearing, he could already hear the panicked screams of his future victims when they discovered that he had arrived, only further exciting him.
"That's far enough, Brandon," a male voice said from behind him.
The superpowered psychopath turned around to find seven individuals standing behind him, but these were no mere seven new victims to tear through, for these were gods like him. They were the seven leaders of the mighty Infinity League: Danny Phantom, Kim Possible, XJ-9, the Ninja of Norriseville, SheZow, the American Dragon and Optimus Prime. Together, they guided the Infinity League against the hordes of evil that plagued the world, evil such as Brandon. When he first discovered his powers, the boy had dreamed of joining the ranks of the League, but now he saw that they would've only held him back from using his full potential and attempt to thwart his real reason for being sent to this backwater planet: To take the world. Now, they were only obstacles in his path. Obsticles that he was looking forward to removing.
"We know who you are, Brandon," Danny continued. "And we don't want to fight you. We want to help you."
Brandon said nothing in response. Instead, he only floated before the heroes in silence.
"We know that you've done wrong, but I can tell you that all of us here have been in your shoes," the half-ghost furthered. "We all have wanted to use our powers and skills to get back at those who have wronged us, but this isn't the right way. We can help you, Brandon. Just surrender and we can-"
"No," the boy suddenly replied in a stoic voice. "Now leave before I kill you."
The boy knew that there would be no purpose even humoring what the ghost boy had proposed to him. He knew that they'd only literally try and stab him in the back like his adopted mother.
"Well, so much for negotiations," Kim, who was wearing her battle suit, noted before turning to Danny. "Now what?"
"We keep him focused on us and away from the evacuation," Danny said to the others.
"That should be easy," Jenny commented. "It's seven against one."
"Somehow I doubt that's going to matter," Shezow said.
The two sides faced off with one another, neither side wavering for even a second. Danny didn't want it to come to this. He wanted to help the boy, not hurt him. But it was clear that the child wasn't going to listen to reason. So, despite his best efforts, he and his fellow League members would have to bring the boy in by force.
"Take him down," he said to the other League Leaders.
Brightburn flew toward the League's leaders as they charged toward him as a unified front. Danny was the first to strike with a punch, but the superpowered boy blocked it before grabbing him by his suit and flinging him aside. He kicked XJ-9 into a nearby building before swatting Kim and the Ninja away with a single swing of his arm. Brandon then evaded Optimus' foot before striking the giant robot in the knee, causing Prime to let out a pain filled cry before Brandon flew up and punched him across his face, knocking him to the ground in doing so.
However, Brandon was so preoccupied with his attack that he failed to see the American Dragon come up behind him and slash his claws into his back. Normally, such an attack would not harm the god-like child, but due to the supernatural properties of the dragon's being, he felt the sting of claws raking across his skin. Pain was an alien concept to the boy, for he hadn't encountered anything native to this world that could harm him, and it only furthered his rage. He spun around and grabbed the Dragon by the throat, squeezing his scaly neck in a vice grip.
Brandon's eyes began to shine red as he charged his heat vision to bore through the winged reptile's skull like he had done to his adoptive father. However, before he could, a pink-gloved fist collided with his cheek, knocking his heat vision away from the Dragon and off into the skies above. The hit was strong enough to make Brightburn release his hold on the Dragon's throat. The strike came from SheZow, who kept up her assault with a series of powerful blows and ended with direct punch to the boy's face that sent him flying backwards before smashing through the wall of an office building and tumble through some of the office desks within it. SheZow rocketed into the hole Brightburn had made in order to follow up on her attack. However, the moment she entered the office building, she was struck by a surprise flying desk that her enemy had thrown at her, knocking her back in the process. With his distraction a success, Brandon flew upwards through the ceiling of the building and back into the sky. But just as he had escaped one hero, another had lunged at him.
With a roar, the American Dragon flew towards him with his claws at the ready and his mouth full of flames. The Dragon spewed fire from his maw at the superpowered psycho, forcing him to shield himself from the fire with his arms. The fire actualy burned his skin, shocking the boy profusely. How was the Dragon capable of harming him? Fire had no effect on him before, so how was this any different? The the only answer Brandon could surmise was that, much like his claws, the Dragon's fire was supernatural in origin, thus giving it the extra edge he needed to do harm to him.
With an anger-filled cry, the boy fought through the pain and flames as he flew forward toward the Dragon. Once he was close enough, the psychotic child reached out and crushed one of the Dragon's wings, making his enemy let out a very human scream of agony in doing so. Brandon let the winged reptile fall back toward the ground below, but thankfully, he was caught by SheZow, who had been flying up to assist her teammate after shrugging off the hit from the desk.
Now preoccupied with trying to get her wounded teammate to safety, SheZow failed to notice Brightburn, who was charging up his heat vision again to knock both League Leaders out of the sky. But before he could strike them down, he was knocked across the sky by a surprise ecto-charged fist from Danny, who had flow up from where he had been initially been hit in order to deliver a little payback. The punch sent the god-like child straight into Jenny, who had merged and morphed her arms into a giant hammer that batted Brandon back down to the earth. The boy created a crater when he collided with the street's pavement, but the heroes knew that wasn't going be enough to keep him down. So, acting quickly, the robot and the half-ghost landed back on the ground and fired a barrage of lasers and ectoplasm at the the downed boy until their combined assault had kicked up a cloud of dust.
"You think we got him?" Jenny asked.
"I think we just pissed him off," Danny admitted.
No sooner had the spectral hero said that did the two heroes see a pair of blazing red eyes pierce through the thick cloud of debris. With an angry yell, Brandon shot of the cloud and swung his fists wildly at the two heroes. Luckily Jenny managed to evade the attack while Danny went intangible to avoid the assault. Jenny punched Brightburn in the stomach before morphing her other arm into a pulse cannon and aiming it directly at the boy's face, but Brandon grabbed her newly formed gun arm and flung the teen robot into her teammate, sending them both tumbling into a nearby parked truck.
"Ninja Air Fist!" a voice cried out.
A strong ball of air struck Brandon in the back, knocking him off balance for a moment before he corrected himself. Brandon turned around to see the Ninja standing before him with his sword drawn and ready to take him on.
"Was that supposed to hurt me?" Brightburn asked mockingly.
"Yeah, but I'm hoping this hurts more," the Ninja replied.
Before Brandon could understand what he protector of Norrisville had meant by that, he felt something bump up against his shoe. He looked down to see a large set of what he thought where marbles at his feet. However, the 'marbles' suddenly exploded, causing Brightburn to be engulfed in flames. With the insane child caught off guard, Kim leaped through the smoke and delivered a powerful roundhouse kick across the boy's face. Thanks to her battle suit, it increased her strength, thus allowing her attacks to be felt by her god-like enemy. Brandon staggered backwards as Kim kept up her attack with a series of kicks and punches that continued to knock the boy backwards. Brightburn attempted to throw a punch, but it was quickly caught by the Ninja's scarf, who then swung forward with a flying kick to the psychopath's face. Together, Kim and the Ninja fought as one, evading and attacking their foe as a united force. Brightburn may have powers that dwarfed the two heroes, but he lacked the skill and training that they had on their side. The longer the two kicked and punched Brightburn while he swung his arms wildly, the more the boy became enraged.
"I'll kill you!" Branden exclaimed as he tried to hit them. "I'll kill you all to death!"
"Not with that poor literacy you won't," Kim teased.
Just then, the respective combatants heard the sound of a semi-truck's horn blaring. Coming down the street at top speed was Optimus Prime in his vehicle mode. Kim and Randy leaped out of the way at the last second, but Brandon was hit by the full force of the charging Autobot. However, instead of continuing to drive forward with the alien child stuck on the grill of his vehicle mode, Optimus was stopped dead in his tracks, his trailer even buckling slightly, all the while smoke spewed from his tires as he tried to push forward. But Brandon was holding him back with both his hands on the grill of the alien truck. Forced to switch tactics, Optimus transformed into his robot form, roughly took hold of the child and pinned him down to the ground.
"Stand down, boy," Optimus advised. "We don't wish to harm you. Just surrender and this fight can end peacefully."
Brightburn let an enraged shout as fired another set of beams from his eyes, burning Prime's hand and forcing the Autobot to let him go. The moment he was freed from the Cybertronian's hold on him, Brandon shot up into the air and struck Prime with an uppercut that knocked the Autobot leader onto his back. He then landed on the alien robot's chest before reaching down and starting to pry open his chest in an attempt to tear out his spark. Optimus cried out in pain as he felt his metallic skin being torn from his body.
Thankfully, before he could do any serious damage, Kim managed to kick Brandon off of Prime's person and right into the Ninja's fist, who now had activated the spikes on the knuckles of his suit so that he could deliver a stronger blow. The blades in the Ninja's suit tore off a chunk of Branden's mask, revealing some of his face to the young hero in doing so. The Ninja knew that he was fighting a kid only a few years younger than himself, but the mask helped him disassociate himself from pummeling a child. Now that mask was torn and he could see a part of an angry little boy underneath it.
It was this brief moment of hesitation that gave Brandon the time he needed to punch the Ninja through a large plate glass of a nearby building. No sooner had he done that did a pink streak shoot toward him before grabbing him by his shirt and lift him into the sky. It was SheZow, and she was ready for a second round. The psychotic boy broke free of the Glamazon warrior's grasp mid-flight and flew up several yards higher into the sky before stopping to face the pink-clad heroine. The two of them shot toward one another with clenched fists. When Brightburn and SheZow's fists collided into one another, it created a shockwave with the force of a bomb that shattered every window within a two mile radius.
Brandon was the first to follow up from the earth-shaking blow with a punch to the heroine's jaw before taking his opponent by her uniform and hurling her into the eighth story of a nearby building, knocking her through several office desks much like she had done to him earlier. SheZow was grateful that this part of the city was already evacuated, or this situation would've been a lot more dire. Just as the heroine had gotten back to her feet, Brandon floated into the building with his eyes blazing red. With a shout, Brightburn unleashed his heat vision at his enemy, but the red-hot beams were blocked by SheZow's laser lipstick.
Brandon was so focused on killing SheZow that he failed to listen to his super hearing, for coming through the floors at a rapid pace was Jenny, who was looking to even the score with the young psycho. The android exploded out of the floor below the boy, striking him in the stomach with a rocket punch as she did. Keeping her enemy pressed against her fist, Jenny continued to rocket upwards through several floors as she made her way up toward roof of the structure. As he was smashed through floor after floor, Brandon's heat vision sprayed wildly from his eyes, cutting through several support beams within the buildings that made the structure start to give way.
Seeing the building starting to collapse around her, SheZow flew out of the building via the hole that her teammate had left behind. SheZow narrowly avoided being buried by the falling building as it came down as she flew out of the hole Jenny had left and flew toward the scene of her robotic teammate trading blows with the superpowered psychopath. Back on the ground, Optimus took hold of Kim and the Ninja and transformed back into his vehicle mode in order to protect them from the cloud of debris that was about to wash over them. With his teammates safe, Prime drove out of the wreckage, all the while Kim and the Ninja kept their eyes on the skies as they watched the other leaders of the League continue their fight with Brightburn as it began to drift deeper into the city.
Back in the sky, SheZow flew to XJ-9's aid with her laser lipstick at the ready. She swung her energy blade at Brightburn, who narrowly dodged the attack before punching her downward into another building. Jenny put her arms together and formed a massive laser that struck Brandon in the chest and knocked him backwards several feet before he managed to correct himself. However, his recovery was short lived, for another blast of Ectopalsm struck him in the back. Enraged by the surprised hit, Branden whirled around to strike down the heroic half ghost, only to instead be greeted by his white gloved fist that struck him in between the eyes.
Before he could take his revenge on Danny, a volley of flames hit him from below. Brandon looked down to see, much to his shock, that the American Dragon was flying toward him despite having his wing broken only an hour ago. What Brandon didn't know was that after being wounded in his fight with the god-like child, SheZow quickly brought the Dragon to the Ninja, who used his art of healing to mend his friend's broken wing before jumping back to the fray. The Dragon had to wait several minutes on the sidelines to allow his wounds to properly heal before joining the other leaders of the League into the heat of battle once more.
Now alongside Danny and the Dragon, Jenny flew beside her teammates with her arms still in their laser mode. Together, the three heroes unleashed a united beam of energy that knocked Brightburn out of the sky and back into the ground. The trio continued their united assault as they landed back on the ground, hoping that this would be enough to hold him down this time. After several minutes, the trio halted their onslaught, hoping that they had finally stopped their enemy. However, the moment they stopped the attack, Brightburn shot out of the smoke left behind from the attack in a now badly torn costume and punched the Dragon several feet away from the others before snatching Danny by his suit and hurling him into a building which he thankfully phased through before colliding with another building. However, the force of the throw caused him to smash into several walls inside of the building that he failed phase through.
Jenny attempted to throw a punch of her own at the boy, but Brandon caught her oncoming fist and with a single jerk of his arm, he tore XJ-9's arm off at the shoulder, causing her to let out a scream of agony. Her teammates watched in horrified shock at the sight of their friend being wounded in such a way. Brightburn then backhanded her into a parked car, knocking her out upon impact before showing Jenny's comrade's severed appendage in his hand like a sick trophy before tossing it aside, renewed in his will to kill these fools who dared to stand against him.
"Jenny!" the dragon called out to her.
The American Dragon rushed over to Jenny's side so that he could get her to safety, but Brandon flew toward him in order to try and cut him off. Acting quickly, Optimus drew his Ion Blaster and fired a round at the boy. He didn't want to use his weapons against a child, no matter how powerful he was, but after seeing what he had done to Jenny, there was no other choice. However, instead of hitting Brightburn, the god-like child merely swatted the ion blast into a the side of a building, blowing a massive hole in the side of it. Done with the alien robot's presence, Brandon turned his attention towards Prime. Before anyone could react, Brightburn flew at the Autobot leader at full speed and struck him across the face with the force of a cruise missile, causing Optimus to fall backwards into a skyscraper. When Prime collapsed into the structure, the rest of the building fell on top of him.
The blow knocked Prime into stasis, leaving him vulnerable to Brightburn. Not wanting to see another one of his friends harmed, the Ninja threw out his scarf one more to try and pull their enemy down and away from Prime. But Brightburn grabbed the oncoming scarf and instead yanked the protector of Norrisville off of the ground and right into his waiting hand. But before Brandon could do any real damage to the Ninja, the defender of Norrisville pulled out a flash ball and shut his eyes tightly before activating it, blinding Brightburn from the intense flash of light which made him release his grip on the Ninja's person.
As he fell, the Ninja threw out his scarf to grab onto a nearby lamppost. Using his own inertia to pull him forward, the Ninja swung back upwards towards Brightburn and unleashed a Tengu Fire Ball that knocked Brandon out of the sky and back onto the streets below. As the god-like child tried to stand back to his feet, Kim greeted him with a strong kick to his jaw that knocked him back onto the ground. Kim hated the idea of fighting dirty, but if they were to defeat this monster, she and the other heroes would have use every trick in the book to stop him. The teen agent kept the superpowered opponent at bay with a flurry of kicks and punches, not giving her young enemy so much as a second to recover, for she knew that she would share the same fate as Prime and Jenny otherwise.
It wasn't before long that the Ninja joined in her assault with his sword drawn. Brightburn could barley evade the swings of the Ninja's magical blade, fearing that it could pierce his skin due its supernatural properties. With a lucky thrust of his swords, the Ninja managed to leave a small, yet still painful cut across the alien boy's cheek. It was still a shocking concept for him, to see himself bleed, for he thought nothing but the material from the ship that brought him to Earth could hurt him.
In a fit of blind rage, Brandon unleashed a blast of hat vision at the two young heroes. The Ninja used his sword to hold back the deadly beams, but the strength of the heat vision was causing the the Ninja's leg to start to buckle under the power. Just as he began to feel his strength begin to give way, SheZow came down from the skies at a breakneck speed and tackled Brightburn through the street and down into the sewers below the city. The Glamazon warrior pinned the god-like child underneath the river of sludge and filth as she began to strike him again and again with one powerful blow after another that shook the very foundations of the city until she was kicked off of the young villain's person. Brightburn shot out of the river of filth and flew toward SheZow, who stopped him dead in his tracks with a sonic scream and managed to pin him up against a sewer wall with the power of her scream.
The god-like child unleash a blast of his heat vision and struck the pink-clad heroine in the shoulder, burning her skin and causing her to break off from the attack. It was at this time that that Kim and the Ninja and jumped down into the sewer to aid their friend. But just as they jumped into the sewer, Brightburn flew up to meet them halfway there, grabbed them both by the throat and threw them down into the sewers. The Ninja was the first to recover from the the attack and leaped at the young psycho with his sword, but his adversary grabbed him by his wrist and broke it with little effort.
The Ninja cried out in pain as he dropped his sword to the ground. Brandon would have thrusted his fist through the protector of Norrisville's chest had it not been for Kim, who struck the young killer in the side of his head with a flying kick, giving the Ninja the time he needed to get away from Brandon's hold. However, Brightburn now focused his fury upon the teen agent, who he took hold of by her arms and began to pull, ready to tear her in half. But before he could do so, an invisible force struck him from behind him with a powerful blow, forcing him to let go of Kim.
Brightburn spun around to see who had hit him and saw Danny Phantom become visible again before striking Brandon with a blow so powerful it sent him flying backwards and smashing through the sewers, back out out into the city above. Danny's suit was torn across the chest and his eyes were blazing dark green with a rage that could only be calmed by ending this fight once and for all. With a speed his teammates hadn't thought he couldn't achieve, Danny rocketed out of the sewers in peursuit of the god-like the child, who was still tumbling helplessly through the air as he tried to regain his bearings again. The half-ghost didn't give him the chance to recover with another punch that sent the boy flying backwards before repeating the process over and over again as the fight went deeper into the city.
After the fourth punch, Brandon finally managed to correct himself mid-air and fired another beam of his heat vision at the spectral hero, who countered by firing another ectopalsm beam. The two opposing beams created an an eruption of energy that tore through several surrounding buildings. The resulting blinding light stunned both combatants for several moments, but it was Brandon who regained his sight first, and the first thing he saw was crowd of stunned onlookers looking up at the battle that was taking place above them. Seeing an opportunity to get back at the heroes that he had been at war with in the best way possible, Brandon unleashed his heat vision again, this time down upon the humans below, but the beam was veered off course when Danny quickly flew up behind the boy and put him in choke hold.
"Stop, Brandon!" Danny commanded as he fought to keep the beams from hitting the civilians below them. "Don't do this! STOP!"
"Never!" the god-like child refused angrily. "I'll kill them all and you can't stop me!"
Despite pouring all his strength into holding Brandon back, the boy was pushing his head forward, thus bringing his beams toward the frightened onlookers, who were being driven back up against a wall in terror. Danny was running out of options. He had to stop the boy here and now or this madness would never end. He wouldn't dare try and break the boy's neck. While that wouldn't for sure kill him, the League would never break their oath to never take a life. So, he turned to a technique that he had been practicing for a while to subdue living threats. The only draw back was that, if he did this wrong, he could end killing the boy all the same, but as he watched the beam get closer to the frightened humans below, he was left without a choice.
Taking his hand, Danny phased it into the back of the boy's head. He then used his fingers to pass through Brightburn's skull in order to reach his brain. Once he had done that, he began to touch certain nerve points within Brandon's brain, forcing him to pass out from the nerve pinch. With Brightburn finally subdued, Danny quickly checked his pulse to see if he hadn't killed him. Thankfully, he could still feel that the alien child was still alive. With the villain stopped, Danny took the boy in his arms and flew down to the ground, where the National Guard and GJN forces had gathered to take the boy into custody.
After the beating they had collectively taken, the leaders of the Infinity League were forced to return to Skyward Tower at once in order to receive medical attention, but several other League members were dispatched down to Topeka to aid with the clean up. The battle between the League and Brightburn had resulted in over $57 million in damages to the city and the League's political enemy, Senator Wilfred Masterson, used the battle as more fuel to his fire of demanding that the Infinity League needed to be registered. But the leaders were in no shape to be bothered with that now, for what they needed at the moment was rest and to be with loved ones.
As the seven leaders were being patched up in the Tower's medical wing, they were visited by those closest to them. The Ninja was of course visited by his lover, Rena Rouge, who stayed with him into the wee hours of the night as he used his healing technique to patch himself up.
Jenny had her arm reattached to her person by her mother, who only showed nothing but love to her robotic child.
Ron stayed with Kim as she healed up, doing his best to keep his girlfriend's spirits up as he did.
SheZow was not only visited by her publicist and the League's P.R. Director, Kelly, but also as her sidekick, Maz. She was also visited by one of Kelly's new staff members, Heidi Weinerman, who seemed to show her concern over the heroine's recovery as than more than just a friend.
Optimus had tried to return to his duties, but Ratchet kept him from doing so. However, he did give orders to Hoist, Grapple and even Ectotron back in New York to help him design a new weapon that could stop another threat like Brightburn codenamed 'Project: Powermaster.'
The American Dragon had no visitors during his stay in the infirmary, though he did request to take the rest of the week off, no doubt to be with loved ones, though no one knew where a dragon would go in New York to find others like him.
As for Danny, he had only one visitor during his time healing from his wounds, but thankfully it was someone he needed to see the most.
"How are you feeling?" Jazz inquired.
"Like I went ten rounds with Godzilla," Danny answered.
"That's not what I meant, Danny," his elder sister said. "How do you feel?"
Danny went silent after understanding what his sibling had really meant by that. He gathered his thoughts before finally speaking.
"I hate myself, Jazz. I didn't want to fight that kid, but I could just see it in his eyes that there no saving him, He'd just keep killing unless we stopped him. And it's not just that I couldn't help him."
"What do you mean?"
"I saw something ugly in myself as I fought him, and I'm sure the rest of the team did too. You know how angry I was at the world when I just got my powers. If it wasn't for you, Sam, Tucker, Mom, Dad and everyone else in my life, I'm afraid I could've ended up like that boy. Hell, in one timeline I became something worse."
"But you didn't. You became what I always knew you were. A good man."
She then leaned down to hug her sibling, who returned the gesture with one of his own.
"My office is always open in case you want to talk more about it," she assured her brother. "And that includes after hours too."
"Thanks, sis," he replied with a warm smile.
It was then that another visitor entered the infirmary, though it was someone who no expected. It was Dr. Betty Director, the head of the Global Justice Network, and to see her in person was a rarity in of itself.
"Well, look who decided to crawl out of her hole," the Ninja said sarcastically. "And to what we owe this surprise visit?"
"I wanted to see how you were all fairing after the fight," the GJN director said. "That boy was unlike anything any of us had encountered before. When I heard the reports that you had engaged that boy I was afraid that some of you didn't make it back."
"How thoughtful of you," the Ninja noted dryly. "And what did you do with the kid? Not recruit him into your ranks I hope."
"The boy is far too dangerous for us to even consider such a thing," Dr. Director replied. "Besides, let's just say that Global Justice has enough monsters as it is."
"So, where is Brandon?" Danny questioned.
"I'm afraid that's classified," the head of the GJN answered "What we should be asking, however, is where did that boy come from? And more importantly, are there others out there like him?"
"I don't think so," another voice spoke up.
Everyone turned to see Garnet enter the infirmary.
"What do you mean, Garnet?" Optimus asked.
"Steven and I just finished talking to the Diamonds," the Gem fusion began.
It was still a strange situation for the other heroes within the League that the Diamonds, once deadly enemies to the planet, had recently become their allies, all thanks to Steven, who successfully reconnected with his distant family.
"I told them about Brightburn and asked them if there others out there like him," Garnet continued. "They told me that his his species was a race of conquerors that sent infants to planets as infiltration units. They said that when they reach a certain age, the ship they arrived in sends a telepathic message that tells them to conquer the world. But their home planet was destroyed twelve years ago and his people were wiped out."
"Twelve years ago?" Dr. Director repeated. "That's roughly the timeframe we predicted Brandon's pod fell to Earth."
"Do they have any idea what could've destroyed the planet?" SheZow questioned. "Like a meteor or black hole?"
"They said it was someone powerful," Garnet answered. "They didn't go into much detail after that. They almost seemed afraid just thinking about it. They just called it 'The Golden Destroyer.'"
"...Did they mean Ghidorah?" Jenny asked, petrified of Garnet's answer.
"No," Garnet answered. "I asked them the same question. They just said that it wasn't a Kaiju."
"Oh, good, so we have a planet killing guy running around the cosmos," the Ninja noted. "We seriously need health insurance."
"We'll cross that bridge when we come to it," Danny said before looking back at Dr. Director. "Now again, I ask: Where is Brandon?"
Dr. Director narrowed her eye at boy, knowing that he wasn't going to let this go.
"All you need to know is that he's somewhere where he can't be a threat to anyone else," she stated firmly.
With that, Dr. Director turned and exited from the infirmary, all the while the League's leaders collectively glared at her as they wondered the ultimate fate of the boy.
Brandon's eyes slowly opened to allow him to see a strange, steel ceiling staring down at him. As the god-like child slowly got back to his feet, he felt strange. Like his strength had been robbed from him. He looked around the room in confusion, slowly realizing that he was in some sort of prison cell. It wasn't before long that he saw a strange, dark purple force-field closing him in his cell. Standing on the other side of the barrier was a man in a suit and wearing dark sunglasses. With an angered shout, Brandon lunged at the force field, only to be rebuked when when he struck it. He then tried to unleash his heat vision, only for it to be a weak beam that hardly reached the barrier.
"I would advise you to save your strength," the man advised. "Not that it will last much longer."
"Where am I?" Brandon demanded "What is this place?"
"Welcome to Hell's Gate," the man explained. "You are being currently confined within Cell Block X. A block within the prison that is meant to hold Omega-Level threats such as yourself. It should interest you to know that you are the first inmate to be held in this part of the prison."
"Whoever you are, you can't keep me in here forever!" the alien child declared.
"My name is Bishop, leader of the Utrom Tribe and warden of Hell's Gate," the warden explained. "And as for your escape, that is quite unlikely. This cell was constructed from the metal of the ship that brought you to Earth, which you have a weakness to. We also scanned your biology and discovered that is has a weakness to the energies of Dimension X, the very place this prison is located in. [1] I suspect that your powers will leave you in no less than five minutes from now."
Rather than to try and argue with with his alien captor, Brandon instead removed his shirt and mustered what strength he had to use his heat vision to burn a strange marking into his chest. It was the symbol he had drawn so many times in his notebook and all over his hometown. After his self-mutilation, he gave Warden Bishop a deranged smile, one that unsettled even the emotionless Utrom. It was Brandon's way of telling him that no matter how long it took, he'd one day break out of his cell.
And on that day, he'd kill all those who had incarcerated him.
[1] - This prison conceptulized in a meeting between Bishop and Dr. Director in Part 5 of The New Frontier
