[Stark Tower – Bruce's Lab]
Bruce's fingers hovered over the communicator, ready to contact Harley, but the sudden blare of the emergency alarm made him jump up. The tower's red warning lights flared to life. Instantly, the holographic monitors flickered, replacing his open files with urgent threat assessments.
ALERT: UNIDENTIFIED VESSEL DETECTED IN SOLAR SYSTEM
SIZE: UNKNOWN.
ORIGIN: UNKNOWN.
TRAJECTORY: EARTH.
THREAT LEVEL: EXTREME.
Bruce's jaw clenched as he pulled up the satellite feed. A massive, skull-shaped spaceship had breached the solar system, one he recognized all too well.
Brainiac.
His hands immediately moved over the console, activating defensive protocols. He had prepared for extraterrestrial threats, but Brainiac arriving now was too soon. Something had accelerated his arrival.
But it didn't matter.
Bruce Wayne wasn't about to let another world be taken.
With a few rapid commands, Stark Tower's defensive systems engaged. The orbital satellite weapons powered up, massive energy cannons hidden in space stations around the planet locking onto the incoming vessel. But that wasn't enough.
Bruce exhaled sharply before initiating the Sentinel Protocol.
Across various hidden bunkers, in the depths of Wakanda, in the Arctic outpost, and even beneath Shield's classified installations, mechanical giants began to stir. Jarvis and Shuri have upgraded them further over the months and made them even better than before.
And now, they had only one mission.
Terminate Brainiac's vessel.
Hundreds of Sentinels launched into the sky, their bodies vanishing into the dark abyss of space. Some shimmered with energy fields, others crackled with stolen omega-level mutant power. They weren't just weapons; they were extinction-level enforcers.
Bruce didn't even pause to watch the Sentinels leave Earth's orbit. He had other matters to attend to.
He tapped the console, immediately connecting to SHIELD's emergency frequency.
..
[SHIELD Headquarters – War Room]
Natasha Romanoff stood at the center of the command station, watching the massive holographic display of Brainiac's ship as it moved closer. Her expression was unreadable, but the sharp glint in her eyes said everything.
They were on the clock.
"Status report," she ordered, her voice sharp.
A technician, barely keeping himself together, responded. "The ship is moving at a steady pace, no weapons fired yet, but it's enormous. If it gets any closer, we won't be able to stop it before it enters Earth's atmosphere."
Natasha pressed her lips into a thin line. That meant they had one chance. One shot to knock it out before it got too close.
A familiar voice came through the speakers.
"Nat, the Sentinels are already en route. We need to mobilize your team."
Bruce.
Natasha exhaled through her nose. "Understood. We're suiting up now."
She turned on her heels, exiting the command room and heading straight to the armory. The temporary Avengers team was already assembled, waiting for her.
Ami Han, Tigra, Hazmat, Clint, and Natasha.
The five of them stood in front of their gear—custom-made suits, designed by Bruce Wayne himself.
These weren't standard issues. They were Crysis-grade armor, each suit tailored to enhance their individual abilities. Adaptive camouflage, nanotech-weave reinforcement, power-amplification systems, and many more.
Natasha's gaze swept over the team. "You all know the stakes. Brainiac doesn't leave this solar system intact."
Ami Han flexed her hands, the armored gauntlets adjusting perfectly. "And if he lands?"
Hazmat let out a slow breath, her visor clicking into place. "Then we'll beat the crap out of him."
Clint smirked, adjusting the straps on his quiver. "Same as always then."
Tigra rolled her shoulders. "Let's do this."
Natasha gave a final nod before slamming her palm against the deployment console.
The doors to the launch bay slid open, revealing the waiting stealth ship, its engines already primed. They went inside.
"We'll meet with Bruce at the space station. And try not to throw up in my ship," Natasha said as she took the pilot's place.
Selina and Harley received the emergency message from Bruce. Both of them left whatever they were doing and flew toward the space station. When they arrived, Bruce was already there, looking at the live feed from the sentinels. Soon, the Natasha's team arrived.
The alarms blared one more time...
Brainiac's ship had just engaged Earth's defenses.
The war had begun.
...
The void of space erupted with streaks of energy as the Sentinels launched their first assault. Hundreds of them flew toward Brainiac's ship.
Brainiac's ship responded instantly. Its outer hull rippled, transforming as thousands of automated defense drones deployed, swarming toward the incoming assault. Each drone was a killing machine, armed with disruptor beams and adaptive shielding. But they weren't prepared for what they faced.
A Sentinel at the front of the charge extended its arms and then its entire body shifted, splitting apart into a swarm of nanites. The swarm twisted through the incoming barrage, reforming behind the first wave of drones before detonating in a chain of plasma explosions.
Another Sentinel caught an energy blast midair, its liquid vibranium skin absorbing the attack before reshaping the energy into crackling tendrils of lightning. With a flick of its hand, it hurled the energy forward, arcing through the swarm and disintegrating dozens of drones in an instant.
Brainiac's ship adjusted. The massive skull-shaped vessel pulsed with green energy, its outer plating rearranging itself into a more defensive configuration. From its underbelly, colossal mechanical arms unfolded, each armed with gravity-warping cannons. They fired, sending out crushing waves of force.
A Sentinel twisted its body, morphing in midair as the gravity blast hit. Instead of being crushed, its form flowed with the attack, stretching and reshaping itself until it reformed a moment later, completely unharmed.
Another Sentinel landed on the ship itself, its hands pressing against the hull. Its liquid body shimmered and then its entire form turned translucent, phasing through the ship using Kitty's mutation. The next moment, it phased directly through Brainiac's defenses, reemerging inside the ship's core systems.
A pulse of red energy rippled outward as the Sentinel activated telekinesis. The very metal within Brainiac's ship groaned as it twisted and contorted against its own will. Consoles short-circuited. Drones fell from the sky. The entire ship shuddered.
Brainiac's voice boomed through the void, calm but edged with something eerily close to frustration.
"This level of resistance… was not anticipated."
He extended a single hand. The ship responded.
The Sentinel inside the ship was teleported outside. Then...
A new wave of drones emerged, but these were different, larger, their forms more humanoid, their energy signatures mirroring the Sentinels' own. Brainiac had analyzed them and adapted to them.
The counterattack was brutal.
Drones with energy fields resistant to the Sentinels' attacks tore through the battlefield. Blasts of anti-matter erupted across space, erasing Sentinels upon impact. The ship's gravity cannons shifted frequencies, compressing entire portions of the battlefield into singularities.
And then, the main cannon began to charge.
At the ship's core, a massive energy array activated, its glow intensifying as it drew power from an artificial star housed within the vessel. The energy built up, reaching critical levels. If it fired, it would wipe out everything in its path—Sentinels, defenses, and Earth itself.
Bruce saw it from the space station, his hands gripping the console. He was ready to jump into the action, "Come on…" he muttered. "Adapt."
And they did.
The Sentinels stopped their individual attacks. Their bodies rippled as they moved as one.
Two, five, ten of them converged, liquid vibranium merging into a single entity. Then a hundred more. The massive Sentinel took form, growing larger, its body crackling with power stolen from mutants.
It raised a single hand.
The energy blast from Brainiac's main cannon fired an unstoppable beam of destruction. But just before impact, the Sentinel activated a giant pink portal using Blink's ability.
The attack vanished.
For a single, deafening second, there was silence.
Then, on the opposite side of Brainiac's ship, another portal opened.
The ship's own cannon blast erupted back toward it, slamming into the hull with full force. Energy cascaded across the vessel, tearing through its structure. Explosions rocked the entire ship.
Suddenly, a massive wave of cosmic energy swept over the space, nullifying the explosion...
A silvery-looking humanoid appeared out of nowhere before Brainiac's ship. He took a single step and appeared before the space station. His speed was so fast that other than Bruce, Selina, and Harley, none of the others noticed.
Bruce clenched his fist, the lightning ring crackled as he teleported outside and hovered before the new enemy.
"Who the fuck are you?"
---
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Next Ch: Bruce vs The Fallen One
Ch: 86: Redemption
Ch: 87: The Hybrid Doomsday vs Harley and Selina
Ch: 88: A desperate struggle
Ch: 89: Omega-Level Target
Ch: 90: I'm Harley goddamn Quinn [Vol-2 ENDS]