Alright, Cain finally catches a break (maybe?)
Zerayah's Adventures with Superman 4: Brainiac causes problems on purpose
It was a rather ordinary day in Cainopolis, the prosperous metropolis bustling with life spending each and every day filled with hope. For the past few months a certain blue-clad figure had become quite the celebrity, going from a rarely spotted cryptid that was only whispered in tabloids and rumour mills to a hero second only to the Liberator in his nigh mythical status. The Man of Tomorrow, Angel of Tzeentch, Apostle of Truth, Justice and the Slawkenberg Way and of course Superman who was quickly endorsed by the Liberator himself in a series of heartfelt speeches about his pride over inspiring such a powerful servant of justice. All was peaceful, more peaceful than ever even, crime was at an all time low and whenever there was a disaster the mysterious Superman and his equally enigmatic chitin-armoured companion would rebuild better than ever before in the span of mere hours. That was until a strange skull shaped ship of green tinged living metal appeared in the skies. A squadron of ships was immediately sent to intercept it but none could leave even a scratch on the alien craft, and with beams of vicious heat countless souls were martyred in an instant.
A message was broadcast across all frequencies across the world. The skull-shaped face of a robotic Xenos with patches of green between plates of silvery grey metal, a vile parody of the Omnissiah of the BORGs clad in the colours of hated Nurgle, introduced himself as Brainiac and declared his interest in the 'anomalous prosperity' of Slawkenberg and his intent to harvest the nascent civilisation. To add it to his collection of cities held in perpetual stasis through vile xenos sorcery. Immediately the Liberator acted, overriding the mad alien's broadcast to explain that the best sorcerers on the planet were working to disable and limit the capabilities of the thing's ship, bravely spending the precious time he could have been spending evacuating reassuring the public of their safety. Right after the speech with a flash of light the vile mechanism of Brainiac's vessel activated and from every corner of the city it was met with a shield of faith, yet when the dust settled all of the Cainite Protectorate would come to realise the grevious cost of victory. In exchange for the safety of his people Cain had neglected, or more likely, sacrificed himself. The Liberation Palace was no more, gone as if it never existed, only a massive gaping hole left in its wake. Cainopolis was saved but it was left headless, the entire council likely whisked away to the foul clutches of the creature. Despair raw and wild gripped every person who had watched the scene broadcast live across Slawkenberg and Adumbria, uncertainty ruled the masses as the ship hanging above them remained frozen in place as if unable to comprehend the Liberator's heroism and left as shocked and speechless as the rest of the planet. Some even cried out that doom was nigh, that the Gods had grown silent in their time of need...
But like a new dawn hope would return to Cainopolis as two figures rose to meet the enemy. Twin trails of blue and purple that promised no matter what there will be a tomorrow.
Clark Kent was, to put it in polite terms, way out of his fucking depth. For the past few months since he and Zerayah had agreed to go somewhat public, with the blessing of her father of course (though the poor man really needed to cut down on the recaf, his heart rate every time Clark visited was nearly double the normal) they had been facing crime syndicates, the occasional rogue former nobleman gone mad, a slew of haywire BORG creations that honestly seemed to get worse every passing week and far too many lost pets to count. It just so happened of course that the biggest event since the Revolution in the form of an alien ship in the shape of death appearing in the skies of Slawkenberg would happen in the middle of maths class. Sure he had wished something interesting would happen in the mind numbing lesson, but not like this! Never like this!
He had noticed the things arrival first, his superhuman eyesight picking up what would have been an invisible disturbance in the air to most before all hell broke loose. Before he could even react the entire school had been put into lockdown, panic quickly overtaking the other students as two ships were eviscerated with beams of energy even he wasn't sure he could safely take. For the first time in living memory Clark felt like he was facing something utterly beyond him, a threat he could not even imagine. If he was alone he wasn't sure how exactly he would react, he wasn't willing to do nothing as the thing took over the school intercom and began ranting about some nonsense about preserving and destroying civilisations of course but despite all his power he wasn't even 17. He had a scant few months of experience being a superhero! He barely faced anything that could remotely be called a real supervillain since the Nurglite cult and the daemon they summoned! Thankfully however he wasn't alone, silently he reached for his dataslate and texted Zerayah.
Where are you? He typed as quickly as possible.
Down the hall, managed to sneak out of class in the commotion. Trying to get you actually, I hope to the Gods you have a plan big guy. A rapid response popped up on his screen.
Yeah about that... I was hoping you would... but we will figure it out. He responded.
He could practically hear the deep sigh from the undulating three dots dancing at the bottom of his screen. Any other time he would think Zerayah being exasperated was honestly adorable, but now was certainly not the right moment to be thinking such thoughts. Finally Zerayah apparently settled with. Alright. My dad said he was about to make a broadcast and demanded we stay right where we are by the way. Before you ask: we are NOT doing that, but when it happens it should be enough of a distraction for you to get out without anyone noticing.
Wouldn't dream of it. He texted, before sliding the dataslate into his pocket and waiting for the right time. Sure enough the droning metallic voice of this 'Brainiac' cut out and replaced by the sombre yet ever unflinching and soothing baritone of the Liberator. He wished he could spend the moment listening to his surely inspiring speech, but he could not afford a moment to waste. Faster than the human eye can perceive he was already out the door and in his costume, stopping right in front of Zerayah in security camera blind spot.
Zerayah was in her Lara Lane disguise, but right now her hazel eyes held the same predatory edge as when she was being her true self. Even with her extreme control of herself he could see the anxiety pulsing off her body in large waves, only barely lessening when he flew to her side. "Hey Big Blue, I take it you don't have any secret primarch knowledge on what this thing is do you?"
He shook his head. "You know I am not even sure if I even am a primarch... and even if I was I didn't get any of the programmed skills and knowledge Hektor said I should have. Just this dumb strength and a few gimmicks..."
Zerayah raised an eyebrow. "Yeah some gimmicks alright... burn through a metre of solid steel and fly faster than most ships. I would be jealous if I didn't get plenty of DNA samples from you big guy."
He blushed at the tease but didn't fail to pick up the nervousness she was hiding in her tone and the almost cornered-animal tension in her body language. "Something wrong Zera? You know, besides the skull shaped ship trying to kidnap us all run by a guy literally named Brainiac and all."
She sighed and looked at him seriously, her eyes shifting to that familiar shade of purple. "Can always see through me like glass big guy... but yeah my dad is being an idiot and not evacuating from the Palace. Said he needed to make sure the rituals were done correctly and that it would look no good to run away while the city is in danger but... he can't fly like we can you know?"
He nodded and before she could brush it off wrapped her in a comforting hug. "I worry about my ma and pa all the time too, but they are stronger than you know. Besides, he always worries about you so much, I am sure he would be proud you are worrying about him too."
Melting into his hug and reassurances Zerayah stayed in the embrace for a moment before pulling away, now completely coated in thick chitin armour. "Alright, enough moping, let's kick some alien ass!"
Flying out of the school they arrived just in time to see the battle between the psychic wards of the city and impossible alien technology. A blinding flash of light as well as a massive shockwave shook the world, causing Clark to instinctively grab Zerayah and cover her with his body, and when the dust had settled everything was fine. Everything except of course, the Liberator's Palace.
He could feel Zerayah's extra lungs fill beyond their capacity as her eyes widened quite literally beyond the constraints of her skull. With a choking noise filled with more emotions than he could count she quietly croaked. "Dad... no..."
Not knowing what else to do Clark stumbled to attempt to find words of comfort before being taken aback by the sheer primal rage in her eyes, deep purple irises growing to nearly pitch black as her armour swelled into a vicious mass of acid coated spines. "I AM GOING TO EAT THAT WRETCHED XENOS FREAK!"
She took off faster than he had ever seen her, fast enough that even he was having trouble following her movements. So what else could he do except chase right after her? He prayed to Tzeentch for Caiphas Cains safety, not only for the sake of the great man, but for fear of how his daughter would react if he was truly lost.
Cain thought being stuffed into a jar would be more nerve-wracking, but honestly he was having the time of his life. Sure everyone else was panicking when it happened, and he had to admit he almost had a heart attack himself, but then he realised. This was a truly a frakked up situation, there was no way out as far as anyone could see, Jafar had buried himself under a mound of paper, Malone and Hektor had been slamming themselves against the impenetrable glass surrounding the palace and nearly everyone else was in a state of utter disarray. In a situation like this... how could anyone expect him to take responsibility! And he doubted even Emeli could reach him in here, deep within the Xeno craft which apparently according to Jurgen was shielded against psychic powers! He was truly free! So even as the rest of the Council and staff screamed in the hallways he relaxed in his office and poured himself a nice cup of recaf.
"As expected you are calm as ever, doubtless you have a plan!" Krystabel fawned from her hiding spot, apparently on his roof in some strange gymnastic variant of the fetal position? How long had she been there?
"That's right sir! You haven't so much as shed a drop of sweat since we were whisked away! What are you thinking about?" Jurgen asked, popping his head out from his hiding spot under his spare desk. Even the normally unflappable Malicia who had only shown her fear through vibrating rather loudly beneath her ridiculous armour seemed to turn to him for his sage advice.
Ah well little matter, for once he could probably get away with being ho-
"WHAT DID YOU DO?" A booming, metallic voice called out from outside.
"Honestly I haven't the faintest clue how it all works either!" He answered honestly. No point lying to the evil alien robot that could crush them all like ants after all.
"LITTLE MATTER. I WILL CRUSH THIS PETTY DISPLAY OF RESISTANCE LIKE THE REST. PERHAPS THE POPULATION NEEDS TO BE CULLED OF ANOMALOUS VARIANTS BEFORE HARVEST... YOUR PETTY VICTORY WILL BE MEANINGLESS HUMAN! SOON MY SHIP WILL HAVE RECOVERED FROM YOUR LITTLE ACT OF DEFIANCE AS THOUGH NOTHING HAD EVER HAPPENED, AND BRAINIAC WILL TEACH YOU THE DEPTH OF YOUR FOLLY! YOUR SECRETS WILL BE REVEALED, AND THE KNOWLEDGE OF YOUR CIVILISATION ADDED TO MY VAULTS!"
Wait a second... anomalous varients... his thoughts unbidden turned towards his daughter. Memories of him holding her as an infant, chasing her around her office as a toddler a scant few weeks later... teaching her her first words within the first month... no...
"YOU WON'T TOUCH HER BASTARD!" He cried despite himself, rising from his seat chainsword in hand. It was a futile effort, he knew his actions didn't mean shit, but despite it all he said it with such confidence it even seemed to give the machine man pause.
"IRRELEVANT. IRRATIONAL. YOUR RESISTANCE IS USELESS, I NEED NOT EVEN DISCIPLINE YOU. KNOW YOUR PLACE." The machine scoffed coldly.
"Jurgen, call up Teslion-Kappa. It's a long shot and it could quite possibly blow all of us up..." He said with shaky breaths. "But I am not letting that thing hurt my daughter. Bring out the superweapon, let's see how strong this jar really is!"
Jurgen didn't even hesitate, nodding and dialling up the BORG and relaying his orders. During that moment Cain's survival instinct returned in full force and he suddenly regretted every single second of his soon to be very short life.
As they flew up they were greeted by a swarm of tiny, vicious beetle shaped machines. Zerayah didn't so much as flinch, she summoned up more of Clark's genetic echoes and sent a concentrated blast of purple plasma through her eyes. A large chunk of the swarm was reduced to vapour in an instant, yet ever more seemed to come, and her eyes stung at the unnatural exertion. She didn't have enough genetic references to perfect Clark's technique, hers was a simple, shallow replication. But perhaps if she simply ate him, lured him in and-
She killed that train of thought before it could fester, growing fangs and biting cleanly through her tongue, spitting out the bloody flesh as a new tongue regenerated in its place. She would not be going there, no matter the circumstances she was not eating anyone least of all her fucking boyfriend!
Right on cue Clark reached her position and took in a deep gulp of air, releasing a blast of freezing wind that managed to stop even these strange alien machines in their tracks. "Are you alright Zera? I saw you spitting something bloody earlier! You can't keep running off like that without me, what if something goes wrong!" The idiotically selfless boy shouted, not even acknowledging that he had apparently developed yet another bullshit power in the heat of the moment.
"Doesn't matter! The thing said he wanted to keep the city, like some collectors item, with the people inside like some freaky pet! I am not letting him keep dad!" She yelled, ignoring the strange movements of her stomach. She could not let him know her thoughts in her moment of weakness... she could not have him think her a monster. Yet still she couldn't give less than her all to save her father, she just prayed she wouldn't lose herself in the process.
"We'll get him back!" Clark, the idiot, said with such a big goofy grin she caught herself believing it. "But first... trouble to your right!"
Two larger drones of almost liquid metal coalesced to their position, wielding strange tendrils of that same fluid metal that looked distinctly vicious. She nodded and flew at one a dozen times faster than sound, slamming into it with enough force to crack her enhanced chitin shell and send the crushed remains of the drone hurtling to the ground. Clark was right besides her and achieved much the same thing, grabbing onto the tendrils and spinning rapidly to slam it into the location of a long abandoned quarry, creating a hole visible even from this distance many miles away. They could not stop to celebrate their victory however, as the ship opened up to release countless more drones blackening the sky with a tide of silver and green.
"YOU DARE DEFY BRAINIAC? YOU STILL RESIST YOUR FATE?" A metallic voice screeched. "THE COLLECTION WILL NOT BE INTERRUPTED FURTHER. DIE."
"He wants to wear us down, I don't think his big guns are working or he would have used them already." Clark surmised, rich blue eyes narrowed in thought. "But I don't know how long that will be true for, we have to get in there right now!"
She smiled, she could almost kiss the man honestly when he looked so serious like this. That would have to wait however. "Let's go then!"
Together with a thunderous boom they flew straight past the swarm of machines, bodies blazing with plasma as the air burned around them shielding them from the robotic onslaught. Before anyone could blink the distance was closed and they flew straight into one of the open hangers, flying directly into the heart of the skull shaped ship. It was a large open space, shelves upon shelves decorated with flasks each dancing with miniaturised lights. With no small amount of indignant horror she realised those were cities, civilisations slaughtered and kept as trophies by this monster.
"Fascinating. I must admit you two have caused more problems than anticipated." A metallic voice, yet much more natural than any of the previous times they have heard it, called out near where they had landed. It did not take long for her eyes to trace the source to the throne in the centre of the room, connected to the roof by a huge array of cables and tubes all connected to an imposing figure that could almost be mistaken for a statue except for the green patches on its body and those soulless black eyes cold as the void. The thing stood up, disconnecting from the vast majority of the cables with various hisses and pops. "Though I have a hypothesis I need to test. You two may prove helpful, so I will humour you. Let's see how long you last against Brainiac!"
Screaming with rage she charged at the thing, knowing Clark would be shortly behind her, but right before her fist would connect to the monster before her a sudden wave of pain and weakness wracked her body. Panting with pain she fell to her knees just before the thing, and she could hear Clark scream and writhe in agony right behind her. She looked up to see what happened, and saw the thing, Brainiac, holding a strange glowing green rock.
"Fascinating. I had thought your kind eradicated in the War in Heaven. Too powerful under the light of even a yellow sun, had you never considered your original masters would create a failsafe? Though you do not appear to face as severe symptoms, that and your unusual biology... a half breed perhaps? Or maybe another failed experiment, like the twenty godlings the ape anathema stole the blood of Krypton for? We will have time to find out, when the experiments begin." Brainiac clinically noted, like a scholar looking at a particularly interesting bug.
She frantically banished the borrowed traits from Clark and stumbled to her feet, feeling the weakness fade. "I will hang your skull on the mantle!"
"Oh? Very interesting, I look forward to dissecting you." Brainiac declared as six tendrils tipped with vicious blades erupted from his spine.
Before either could do anything the room was drowned in a flash of light, noise and chaos.
Cain gasped as he patted himself all over. He pinched himself and felt pain... he was alive... he was alive! Holy shit he was genuinely not expecting that, he had been making his final prayers to the Emperor as the BORGS prepared their gun, only not ordering them hastily to stand down and reconsider when he saw that creature approaching his frakking daughter and then...
He looked around, the rest of his retinue were slowly coming to their senses, and apparently Malone and Malicia were having a competition of who could puke the most in the least time. The Palace was in shambles truthfully, but in much better condition than it should have been. Some mysterious force seemed to have plopped it right where it was stolen from if the familiar view from outside the windows said anything about anything. He heard soft feminine giggling and the ghost of a kiss on his cheek and had an idea of who was responsible... best not to think about it...
The half-destroyed ruin of the xeno spacecraft was lying in the centre of his city, miraculously landing in Memorial Park and missing most inhabited buildings. It was good... but with how much damage was caused... oh by the Emperor his daughter was right there. Was she alright? Was she alive? Did he-
"DAD!" He heard a familiar voice yell, quieting his rapidly beating heart. In that moment nothing else mattered, he looked upon Zerayah's form floating down from the sky and felt more relief than any time he had narrowly escaped death fill his soul. At her side was the boy, Clark Kent, he thinks the Brainiac guy said something about him when he did something to cause the two of them to collapse in pain using a strange green rock that had made Hektor feel sick but honestly he couldn't hear a word at the time. What mattered was the boy was by the side of his daughter and was also trying to save him, perhaps he did misjudge him, perhaps he could give him permission to date his daughter...
"Thank you for the assistance Zerayah, Clark. Truthfully without your distraction I don't know if our little scheme would have been discovered or not." He decided was a good place to start. "I am so glad you are safe Zerayah, if you had been hurt- when I saw what that thing was doing to yo-"
Zerayah rushed forward faster than he could perceive and wrapped him in a big, warm hug. "I know dad, I feel the same way..."
Normally he would be terrified by something this strong so close to him, but his heart was at ease. He wrapped his own hands around his daughter, rythmically patting her back as she let out quiet sobs and stained his shirt with tears. "You did well... words cannot express how proud I am..."
Clark floated there silently as the two embraced, clearly waiting to say something. Cain motioned for him to speak, and Clark quickly picked it up. "Ah... Liberator Sir..."
"Cain is fine." He insisted, after all the boy had tried to save his hide.
"Right... Cain... we managed to find most of the cities on the ship still in their jars, but some of them seemed to have broke as well when you fired the weapon.
"I pray for those poor souls." He said solemnly.
"Ah no... you see..." He then pointed towards the horizon where some... were those alien skyscrapers? "They landed in the countryside, where the abandoned tourist facilities are. As far as I can tell they are some kind of humans who call themselves Interex who work with some friendly Xenos... they are a bit lost and confused but they are thankful and promised to join us!"
Ah. Of course. More stupidly loyal citizens, now with xenos in the mix. Could this day get any-
He saw Zerayah lave his embrace to run up to Clark and give him a kiss on the lips. Then and there his brain short circuited and all rationality fled his body.
Before he could think he was already getting up and storming towards the superhuman boy. "MR. KENT WHEN DID I GIVE YOU PERMISSION TO TOUCH MY DAUGHTER!"
Despite the fact he could crush Cain like a bug Clark actually paled.
Trayzn the Infinite got a notification. Ah, one of his rogue collector-drones has been disposed of. That was good, BR-41-N1AC held an incomplete copy of his consciousness and was to say the very least, a bit of a liability. Worse it sought to start its own collection, and took many important artefacts which Trayzn needed in his museum! How rude! But now that the problem was resolved so to speak the black box implanted in the unit should be transmitting the data of the location of its destruction as well as the details of what had brought it low to him, and collecting what he had lost would be no hassle at all. In fact he might even get something new to add to the collection!
Reading the logs if he could squint his eyes he would. It was interesting... very interesting... it is a shame the navigational data seemed to be corrupted, it might actually take some effort to track down where exactly the drone was cut down. But little matter, he had all the time in the world after all.
Trayzn hummed to himself as he walked down the very literal memory lane, reaching a section holding all manner of extinct species frozen forever in time. He mused as he looked upon a few empty spots in the gallery, it wasn't often he got the chance to collect something very rare indeed. He couldn't really make facial expressions, but in the hollow where his soul should be he was beaming.