Superboy # 204 Starring the Legion of Super-Heroes " Brainiac-5's Secret Weakness"

"Brainiac-5's secret weakness" Story: Cary Bates, Art: Mike Grell
Star Boy and a very tired Brainiac-5 board a Legion cruiser to go on a much needed furlough. Saturn Girl who is at the landing deck to see them off.  comments about how much Brainiac-5 needs this vacation. Brainy agrees, and tells them that he has been very tired but has been sleeping regularly. The two Legionnaires take off and Brainiac is preoccupied with memories, bittersweet memories of the one girl he ever loved the one girl he could not have, Supergirl. Back at headquarters Saturn girl and Cosmic boy is surprised by a mysterious visitor, a person that they would not see again.
  The Legion cruiser approches Recreation Asteroid-7 a man made paradise of fun and pleasure. Brainy goes to check in whle Star Boy goes off to have fun. After he checks in Brainiac-5 is shocked to run into, Supergirl. The blonde of steel tells Brainiac-5 that she can survive without the Legion but life is meaningless without him. The two share a kiss. Hours later Star boy is looking for his teammate, the woman at the front desk tells him that Brainiac check out and had a very pretty blonde wearing an "S" emblem with him. Star Boy is bewilldered to the fact that Supergirl is here, he thought that the kryptonian cutie would not leave her time in the 20th century again. Star boy catches up with them at the Legion cruiser which is all ready to take off. Brainiac-5 tosses Star boy his ring and tells him that he is quiting to be with Supergirl.Star boy tries to talk him out of it but a love sick Brainiac-5 will not hear of it and closes the hatch leaving Star boy to break the bad news to the Legion. On the other end of a trans spacial radio call the team on earth find the new hard to believe.
  Thousands of miles away in the Legion cruiser, Brainiac and Supergirl run into a deadly belt of zotron radiation, who's rays are so concentrated they will filter through the ship and vaporize them into nothing. Supergirl who should be invundable to the radation wraps Brainiac up in her indestructible cape that should protect him from the zotron rays. An instant later the cruiser is blasted with the deadly zotron particles. Brainiac thanks Kara and says it was lucky that she was with him. But Supergirl tells him she was not with him she was on earth at the legion base when Star boy called, she got there just in time. She points to a female shaped robot on the floor, and tells him that she saw the zotron rays destroying the android and her syntheic cape and quickly stepped in to shield him. Brainiac-5 is devastaed the woman he thought was Supergirl was an android he wondered where it came from. Using the last of it energy the android told him that it stowed away on the cruiser before he left earth. And that he was responsible, he created it. The android explained that driven by loneliness, his subconscious mind complled him to build his own Supergirl. Every night for the past couple of weeks, Brainiac walked in his sleep and spent a few hours each night methodically building a perfect Supergirl android. The sleeping Brainiac programed the android to replace the void that Supergirl left in his life, He programed it to love him. The android was done the last of it circuits burt out. Supergirl seeing that the zotron rays had overheated the cruiser photon engines , wraps Brainiac-5 in her cape just before the ship explodes.
 Back on the Legion headquarters on earth Supergirl explains what she was doing here in the 30th century, resigning from the legion, she could not handle being even a part time Legionnaire like her cousin Supberboy. But she she tells them that someday she will return and that maybe they can pick up where they left off.
Bits of Legionnarie Buisness:
Roll Call:

• Brainiac-5
• Star Boy
• Saturn Girl
• Cosmic Boy
• Supergirl

Legion Equipment:

• Flight ring
• Legion cruiser

Planets visited:

• Recreation astroid 7

Notes:
A very good story, it fleshes out Brainiac-5 a little, and builds a little on how unstable his computer like mind is. This story also give us a chance to see Mike Grell draw my favorite supergirl costume, red short shorts, blue v neck, the S emblem over her right breast.
Star boy in this story could be replaced by any member of the team, he is only there to give Brainy a travel compainion and somebody to tell the team he took off with the Supergirl android.
Good to see that the 30th century has a pleasure planet, did not want Star Trek to have the only one.
So Brainy quits the team, takes the cruiser and leaves star boy with out a ride home, nice friend.
Supergirl being in the 30th century the same time as Brainy sleeps builds a Supergirl sex-bot, er I mean andriod, a little too conveinent, but I will give it a pass. If you are going to have a crush on a kryptonian, you cannot do better than the chick of steel. I like Brainiac's purple PJ's, this is the 2nd Legion member we get to see in their night clothes.

Brainy's Pjs
 

Next time Member Profile: Brainiac-5.