Legion of Super-Heroes/ Aliens #2: Xenomorphs on Bismoll!

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"You heard the man, Legionnaires!" came Wildfire's shout over the rings' communicators. "Take these things out!"

The various blasts of powers, and the horrific squeals upped in pitch. Brainiac 5 and Tenzil listened silently for a few more seconds before realizing that the communicators had stopped, and they were hearing the noises from outside of the clubhouse. Clearly, the ship had erupted into all-out warfare.

A sonic boom was heard, and then there was a thunderous crash that shook the complex. "Brainy!" came Supergirl's voice over the ring. "Let me back into the ship!"

"No can do, Supergirl," started Tenzil.

"Kara!" Brainy shouted into his ring. "You're okay?"

"Thanks to a page from Kal's playbook, yeah. I was able to get into space in direct sunlight, making me stronger. I was able to cough up the creature inside of me, instead of it bursting out."

"Did you kill it?" Tenzil asked excitedly.

"What? No," answered Supergirl.

"Go back and get it!" shouted Tenzil. "Go back and get it right now! Burn it with your heat vision! Freeze it with your breath and break it into a million pieces! Throw it into the sun! But kill it, Supergirl! Kill it!"

"Tenzil?" she asked with confusion.

"Kara," Brainy said calmly. "He's the only one that knows what these things are. If he says kill it, kill it. Or bring it back here so he can. This threat is apparently level omega."

"I... okay," was her only response, and then there was nothing more.

Just then, the rings sounded with another voice. "One of these things is not like the others! One of these things does not belong!"

Brainy made a sour face, and started, "Is that--"

"--singing?" finished Tenzil.

"It's one of those monsters," came Phantom Girl's voice. "It took Kid Psycho's ring! It's actually been helping us against these things! They're after him as much as us!"

Brainiac 5 looked at Matter-Eater Lad with raised eyebrows. Tenzil stared back at him in disbelief, and then hesitantly, he told his ring, "May-maybe...um...maybe save just that one."

"WILDFIRE!" shouted Phantom Girl. "NOT THAT ONE!"

"What?" was heard in the background.

"Oh, grife!" Tinya said before the communicator stopped.

"Warning!" blared a the ship's computer over the clubhouse's communications. "Warning! Ship's hull has been breached by Phantom Girl and one of the creatures!"

"Is it...I can't believe I'm going to say this," Brainy sighed. "Is it the one that was singing?"

"Affirmative," stated the computer.

"Clubhouse computer, dispatch containment drones to Phantom Girl's position immediately, and contain the creature that is with her," ordered Brainiac 5.

"Affirmative," stated the clubhouse.

As the vibrational hums of the drones' propulsion systems were heard leaving the clubhouse, the final peals of battle toned down in the ship.

"That's the last of 'em," came the voice of Ultra Boy. "Knock knock, Brainy. Let us out."

"Sit tight," answered Tenzil. "Ship's in quarantine until we get hold of Infectious Lass. She scans everyone, and clears you of having any foreign organisms, then you get off the ship. Call's in now."

"Ah, sprok!" complained Ultra Boy, and the communicator shut off.

Tenzil smirked nervously to Brainiac 5. "He's not going to be happy when he gets out of there."

Brainy just shrugged.

***

The containment drones came into the lab towing an inertron chamber reinforced with a force field. Inside was a sight that made Tenzil Kem recoil like a child. "Oh my... Brainy, it's really them. It's really them!"

Brainiac 5 put a firm hand on Kem's shoulder, and shook him. "Tenzil! It's contained! Get it together! What are these things?" he demanded.

Tenzil gripped the hand on his shoulder tightly, gazed at Brainy for a moment with a look of complete horror, and then pulled himself up to his full height. "Th-they... they're called Xenomorphs. They just...they seem to just exist to multiply, and they multiply by... by killing everything else they come across."

"By implantation," Brainy said in a detached manner which oddly seemed to calm Tenzil a bit.

"Y-yes," he sighed as Phantom Girl and Supergirl entered. Supergirl was carrying the frozen pieces of the creature she'd coughed up in space. She tossed them on the table as Tenzil continued, "Bismollians hadn't had the ability to eat matter for too long when the ship carrying the Xenomorphs crashed on our planet. We were still recovering from the microbial poisoning of our organic food sources, and then these... things swept across the planet. It was a massacre- one we nearly didn't survive. We finally regrouped, and fought back, and managed to wipe them out."

"How many were implanted?" Supergirl asked, rubbing her chest as she remembered her pain, and imagining the pain that anyone less powerful than her must have felt.

Tenzil shrugged. "None."

"None?!" the three Legionnaires balked simultaneously.

Tenzil shrugged again. "We eat matter- Xenomorphs count. They're a little spicy, but it was like a force-fed buffet." He thought about it for a moment, then reached for a piece of the frozen creature on the table, and popped it into his mouth. "Never tried them cold before." He chewed a few times, and said, "Pretty good."

Phantom Girl phased her head through the lab wall, and the sounds of retching could be heard from the hallway.

Tenzil grimaced, and called weakly, "Sorry, Tinya!"

Wiping her mouth with the back of her hand, she just waved him off as she phased back into the room. "You were saying?"

Story, original characters and content are owned by Chris Bishop. Copyright Chris Bishop 2018, 2019, 2020, 2021, 2022.

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