damned_institute | Day 38: Patients' Library

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Day 38: Patients' Library

The intercom rang out, disrupting what had turned out to be a rather pointless breakfast conversation, at least in Brainiac 5's eyes. He couldn't wait to put more distance between himself and Scar's blather of how logic, of all things, might not work the same way in this dimension. It was almost enough to make him believe that the man may very well have been a lion originally after all, as he'd never heard anything so very... ignorant and uneducated.

He quickly finished up the fruit he'd been nibbling on - he was no longer as hungry as he had been - and looked around automatically to see where Clark was. Unfortunately with the press of people around, some being led off to the library and others to the mentioned 'therapy sessions' - if that was what they really were - he had lost sight of the Kryptonian. Still there wasn't many places he could go, so Brainiac 5 would be able to catch up with him eventually to check on his condition and try and learn more about what had happened last night. That the Chapel had healed him - admittedly by passing his injuries to another - was interesting, but far more important in his eyes was what had happened to Clark and his powers. They hadn't been working correctly and that worried the Coluan boy more than he would normally have admitted. Without Clark's abilities... he wasn't sure what they would have to rely on in order to escape.

Another problem he would have to deal with was Grell... or, if he was to believe the notes on the bulletin board, the person pretending to be Grell. But that was going to require more careful planning before he made a move. Come to think of it, he had agreed to meet another in the library today on that same post that had sparked this whole mess. At least then he would have something of interest to look forward to, as he doubted any of the 21st century books were likely to be worthwhile to someone of his advanced intellect.

Following the nurses led him to what must have been the library; a reasonably large room filled with a range of archaic books on tall shelves, a few tables and chairs interspersed around the room. The Coluan boy couldn't refrain from wrinkling his nose in distaste as he entered the room, not liking the cumbersome books and the dust that he knew would have gathered on them; he much preferred the clean arrangement of his C.O.M.P.U.T.O. systems back in the Legion headquarters. It was much more practical then shelves and shelves of books on fictional worlds and dated information.

Trying to avoid as much of the room as possible, Brainiac 5 settled himself down on a chair to wait, keeping an eye out for a tall, dark-haired man with a red... something on his forehead.

[for Homura]

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It wasn't a big deal if someone else wanted to look at the books on the shelf she was looking through, but when a young man leaned on it, blocking half the books from view and all but demanding her attention, it was a little confusing. The phrase he spoke hardly made sense, almost like some of the short haiku or other sayings they might memorize as a codeword to tell foe from ally. That or one of those dreadful lines from Jiraiya's books.

She still held a couple of books in her arms and looked up at him, raising a curious eyebrow. Boys didn't just walk up and talk to her, outside of her team at least; that in itself was strange. "I'm... sorry, what?"

She was really cute up close too. Pink hair, gorgeous green eyes maybe a little flat chested but she more than made up for it in other areas. "I came over to see if you really are as beautiful as you looked from over there, but it turns out I was wrong. You're even better up close babe."

Kon winked flirtatiously at her as he continued "I'm Superboy, can I have your name? I need to tell everyone who the girl of my dreams is." This was exactly what he needed to cheer himself up right now. A beautiful girl and no weirdos to tell him off for dissing supervillains. It'd be even better if he could take her flying but he'd take what he could get.

Sakura could solve difficult math problems in a blink, memorize long passages of text or medical charts with hardly a flinch, and knew countless ways to kill a man. All of that, however, was useless in addressing her current problem.

Even she wasn't so dense that she couldn't see he was flirting with her, but... why was he flirting with her?! Either he was some kind of pervert or she really was that smokin' hot. Given her track record, she would unfortunately have to suspect the former. And just what the hell kind of name was Superboy anyway?

"That's..." she lost her train of thought for a second, somewhat flustered by this new development. She was used to comments like that once in a while from Naruto, but no normal person acted like this. Of course, if it'd been Sasuke saying it to her she might've fainted straight out, though that was about as likely to happen as Jiraiya swearing off women and booze.

"My name is Sakura," she said, still regarding him with some suspicion. "And I'm flattered," she added, though her tone didn't quite match up, "but there's already someone that I like, so... maybe your dreams were mistaken."

Grinning happily Kon replied, "Sakura huh? It suits you." He reached out to brush her hair back, still grinning happily. It was going to take a bit more work to get her to soften up to him. She was still watching him like she was waiting for the punchline or thought he was just trying to get something from her. And that was a tragedy. No girl should be suspicious of a guy like him trying to pick them up.

"I think your boyfriend made the mistake. 'Cause if you were my girl I wouldn't leave you alone for second in case some other guy tried to steal you away. Like I'm hoping to."

Stepping around her Kon wrapped an arm around Sakura's waist. "Why don't we get a seat so you can tell me about this guy you're with and I can prove how much better a date I would be." He knew for a fact he was hotter than any guy she could possibly be seeing. He was Superboy, you didn't get any hotter! Unless she was dating Nightwing. Guy was seriously hot. And flexible. But she would've heard of him if she was dating Nightwing so Kon was safe.

If her hands hadn't been full of books, she'd have swatted his away long before it touched her hair. As it was, she instinctively ducked back, only to have his other arm snake around her waist! Just what kind of weirdo was he?! He was like... like Rock Lee, though admittedly, a lot better looking than that bowl-cut thick-browed guy.

"He's not my boyfriend," she said, though it was a bit colder than she'd meant it to be. Sakura couldn't help a slight flush of embarrassment as she said it too. All the same, she she took hold of the wrist that sat at her waist and pulled it away, using a odd bit more strength than a girl her size ought to have.

"Not that... it's any of your business."

Hmmm, she was strong! That was definitely a plus. He'd always liked girls who could stand up for themselves. Taking a step back Kon raised his hands in a placating gesture. "Sorry, didn't mean to get grabby. But you can't blame me for being unable to keep my hands to myself around you."

She still seemed flustered by his attention which was actually a normal experience for him, a lot of girls were surprised to have Superboy chatting them up. Although, picking up was more difficult when he wasn't a famous hero but he never backed down from a challenge. Plus it had been ages since he got to cut loose and have fun like this. There was a grand total of one babe in Cadmus and she didn't even notice he existed. And when he was with Young Justice, well Cissie and Cassie (and Bart and Robin) were all attractive but for a lot of different reasons he wasn't trying all that hard to get with any of them. He barely had any free time when he wasn't at Cadmus or hanging with Young Justice so this was a welcome change in scene.

"Sure it's my business. The only reason every guy in the room isn't hitting on you is 'cause they all think a babe such as yourself just has to be spoken for. Fact that you're not means I get the chance try and seduce you. So tell me, what does a classy girl like you do for fun?"

At least he took the hint, but even if his hands weren't moving again, he kept saying all those... really... well she couldn't decide if they were cheesy or just plain perverse! This guy just wasn't taking the hint! Even her usually blunt and snarky inner voice was confused. She wasn't sure if she wanted to punch him or let him flirt a little bit more.

And then something clicked. Could it be that this boy was just the same as Sai? That he used those good looks and fake smiles to play pretend? She remembered well enough the time Sai had praised Ino's beauty when in reality he meant the exact opposite. Was this all some kind of joke? She knew perfectly well that every guy in the room was not hitting on her was a lot more likely due to her bigger-than-average forehead and her lack of cleavage. Not to mention these uniforms did absolutely nothing for her figure.

"Look. Superboy," she said flatly, setting her books down on the nearest table with a thud. "As cute as your little game is, I have a real hard time believing you came over her just for the pleasure of my company. So why don't you do us both a favor and just tell me what it is you really want."

Kon's cheerful grin slipped away at Sakura's cold tone and even colder speech. Now he was just confused. So maybe he was being a little over the top but he didn't think it merited this sort of response. Thinking back over everything he'd said Kon tried to guess just what had made her think he'd only come over here 'cause he wanted something.

"Geez, you really know how to bring a guy down don't you?" Kon replied scrubbing a hand back through his hair. "I know you don't know me, but I'm not that sort of guy. I really did come over 'cause you're cute and were on your own. No ulterior motive besides wanting to check you out, I swear."

Looking her in the eye he tried smiling again, this time a little more toned down. "I'll even prove it if you want." What was it with people doubting his good intentions? First his roommate had thought he was bullshitting about liking the way he looked and now Sakura thought he was only talking to her 'cause he was after something. Obviously he needed to work on his PR. Too bad Rex wasn't here and wasn't his manager anymore otherwise they could've come up with something. On the other hand, this did give him a chance to prove he was telling the truth which was way more fun than some PR stunt.

Alright, so maybe she did feel a little stab of guilt when he looked like she'd just thrown a shuriken straight through his heart, but that didn't mean she was going to... but he... gah, this wasn't fair! It wasn't that she had a low self-image, but facts were facts and when the only boys to express their undying love for you were Naruto or Rock Lee, one tended to set the bar a bit lower.

"You're really strange, you know that?" she replied, though her tone was much lighter and a smirk had touched the corners of her lips. Guys as handsome as him didn't just come falling out of the sky to flirt with her. As a ninja, she was taught to recognize the things that were out of ordinary as quickly as possible. It could mean the difference between life and death in her line of work. And this was definitely out of the ordinary.

"Alright," she crossed her arms over her chest and gave him an up and down glance. So he was more than just handsome, he was pretty damn close to Sai or Sasuke or Neji's level, though maybe a little more rugged than those other pretty boys. It would be mean not to give him a tiny chance then, wouldn't it?

"Just how are you going to do that?" she asked, now appearing to be at least a little amused rather than upset.

She really didn't know the half of it. If Sakura thought Kon was strange for flirting with her she'd probably think he was even stranger if she knew he was technically only two years old. Or that just that other day he'd been strapped to a nuke and blown up so that he travel to another reality and find whoever had murdered him. Strange was like a requirement for being a superhero. Strange was also apparently a good thing in this case from the way Sakura was finally checking him out. Kon flexed as subtly as possible so she could better appreciate his amazing physique.

He didn't get why she thought he was strange though true as it might be, or why she'd thought he'd only come over 'cause he wanted something. But hey, what really mattered was she believed he was genuinely interested and was giving him the chance to prove it, which was always fun to do. For being in a prison he was getting - not exactly lucky in the general meaning - but something like it, way more than he'd expected.

"Well, I do have a few ideas when it comes to charming the ladies," Kon replied happily, reaching out to gently grab Sakura's hand. She wasn't as jumpy as Kurt had been last night but from the way she'd reacted to him just putting his arm around her waist he still should go slow. Maintaining eye contact he tugged her hand up to press a soft kiss to the back of her knuckles then, still watching her closely, began to work his way along her arm.

Perhaps strange had been the wrong word. Humongous pervert, however, was starting to sound just about right. When he said he'd prove himself, silly her for thinking it would be something like a daring quest, a stunt, or even a poetic proclamation of his heart's innermost desires. Superboy apparently had different ideas.

It was sweet of him to kiss her hand, though it made her a feel a little like she was cheating on her unrequited crush. For about a second she entertained the idea of making Sasuke jealous, but since the boy barely even noticed her now, it probably wouldn't make much sense.

Her cheeks burned red at the gesture, but when he started moving up her arm, she had to bite the inside of her cheek just to keep from yelling out as she pulled her arm back. Just what was he doing?! In public no less! And she couldn't even yell at him properly because she'd asked for it!!

A little voice in the back her mind demanded to know what the hell was wrong with letting a hot guy give her a few innocent kisses because really when was the last time that had happened, but the sensible side said what about Sasuke?

"Okay, okay, you made your point!" she hissed, rubbing her arm as if it'd been acid that'd been spilled on it and not some hunky guy's lips. The blush had spread across her cheeks and she was well and truly embarrassed by the whole ordeal. She moved to take her seat, looking around the room and hoping no one she knew had witnessed that. "Just... just sit down, I'll stay with you a little while, okay?"

"Aww, you keep that up you're gonna hurt my feelings," Kon said, pouting as he watched Sakura scrub at her arm like he'd slobbered all over it instead of kissing her. That was a first for him. Undeterred he quickly claimed the seat closest to her when she sat down.

It was a good thing the staff didn't seem too fixed on the idea that you had to be silent in a library on pain of death. Kon remembered getting in a lot of trouble during his brief stint at school on every single one of the few occasions he'd had no choice but to go to the library. This naturally didn't make him lower his voice from its normal volume as he asked, "So Sakura, what's a girl like you do when she's not breaking guys hearts? They can't have locked you up just for being beautiful can they?"

He totally needed to figure out who here had powers. He could make a team - Superboy's Angels or something like that - with the babes who were also heroes like him. He also wanted to find out just how many different realities people had been taken from. Sure he knew Hypertime was made up of infinite different worlds but could one person really pick and choose which one they went to? It would be seriously cool to be able to travel between worlds as easily as it seemed like the guy running this place could. He'd use that skill way better than it was being used at the moment.

This guy was definitely weird, she decided, but even if he was a perv, at least he seemed to have good intentions. And while it was pretty embarrassing to have someone giving her so much attention and flirting like that, maybe she could get used to it. Maybe. Believing he was actually genuine about his affection was difficult, but after that display, she had to give him the benefit of the doubt.

"You don't let up, do you?" Sakura said, though it was more in joking than actually berating him. She did smile a little easier though, despite how close the boy was sitting.

"I..." she didn't have to say much more than the basics, she reminded herself. That would be alright. Name, rank, that sort of thing. "I'm a kunoichi, that's a female ninja. I specialize in medical jutsu and taijutsu. So before I came here I usually took a support role in our missions."

That about covered it. "What about you? What do you do when you're not sexually harassing patients?"

Kon blinked in surprise, looking Sakura over. "You're seriously a ninja? That is so freaking awesome!" He had no idea what the other stuff she mentioned meant except that she was also a doctor but he sure as hell knew what a ninja was. "That is seriously the coolest thing ever. So you're beautiful and you're dangerous, just the way I like it." If there was one good thing that had come from his relationship with Knockout it was an appreciation for women who could kick his ass or at least put up a good fight.

"As for me I'm a superhero. I'm on a team but I do a lot of solo gigs. I've worked with some of the really big name guys in my world too. In fact I'm actually supposed to be on a mission to save the world right now." Kon said proudly. He figured he'd let the sexual harassment dig slide, Sakura so didn't have a problem with his company. Sometimes girls (and guys) just wanted play hard to get and he was more than happy to work for their attention.

"You know, we'd make a killer team. Your skills and my powers, we'd be unstoppable! I bet you're amazing in action." If Sakura was anything like Robin when he was working it'd be way cool to watch her. She had the added bonus of not being creepy like Rob could be. Or maybe this was what Robin would be like without his mask and secret identity. Not that Kon was ever going to find out. That much had been made clear already. But who cared about him, Kon had a cute girl to talk to.

Superboy apparently didn't have a quiet setting on his voice. She was used to it though, since neither did Naruto. The enthusiasm was cute, though she tried not to look too pleased by the praise. This one hardly needed the encouragement.

While she might not possess the same obvious sexiness that some of the other kunoichi had, or even the same body type as those damn sexy-no-jutsu clones Naruto was always coming up with, it was nice to hear that she could still manage to be 'beautiful and dangerous' like Superboy said. At least someone was recognizing her for it.

Since he'd proved himself in his own strange little way, she supposed she could do the same. She drew the razorblade she'd been hiding up her sleeve, letting a glint of metal show between her fingers just long enough for the boy to catch what it was and short enough that the staff probably wouldn't have caught sight of it. "Second shelf, third book from the right. The one with the red cover."

It was a fairly straight shot, no patient heads in the way or nurses to accidentally hit, though she'd have to keep that in mind for later. Targets that didn't move were pretty easy, and without much practice, the blade only went a little high, sinking in about a quarter inch into the book's spine. Hell yeah! that little inner voice shouted.

"How's that?" she smiled, just a little deviously. So maybe she wasn't totally playing by this place's rules, but Naruto and Sasuke weren't the only ones who could be bad-ass!

If possible, she'd pull it out on the way out of the room. If not, she had a few more in her dresser drawer from Renamon, along with the scalpels.

"So... in your world, people get to be heroic professionally?" she raised an eyebrow. She knew full well what it was to be a hero. And she knew that a lot of people tried to live that way, but she'd never heard of someone who did that for a living. Most people who tried to be heroic ended up dying young and usually in terrible ways from what she'd witnessed.

"Sorry," she said at last, "but I'm already on a team. I've got plans for tonight already, but I'll keep you in mind for another time... if you think you can keep up." She knew she was just leading him on, but it was really kind of... fun getting that sort of attention, even if she was only playing.

Kon hadn't expected Sakura to just pull a knife out of her sleeve like that. While he knew ninja = dangerous he didn't think she'd be able to get away with carrying a weapon around let alone want to try. He guessed it was the whole 'always be prepared' mindset you got in people who did the hero thing without being invulnerable.

Kon's head whipped around as she threw the blade following it's path as it lodged in the exact book she'd specified. Letting out a low whistle he turned back to grin hugely at Sakura. "That's amazing! Remind me never to get on your bad side, babe." He knew other people who could make a shot like that sure, but that didn't make it any less impressive. Kon himself couldn't manage anything like that trick, he still hadn't even managed to catch an arrow in spite of all his practice.

"Yeah, where I'm from there's a whole bunch of professional superheroes like me. There are some who have secret identities and jobs and stuff but a lot of us are full time heroes. It's the best thing in the world." Even after traveling through Hypertime and seeing different worlds, Kon found it hard to imagine one without the JLA or any superheroes.

Sakura seemed to think it was weird there were full-time superheroes but he couldn't imagine being anything else. Even when he'd gone to school that had taken back-seat to being a hero, much to the teacher's disgust. But he couldn't help it he was made to be the next Superman, school just couldn't compare. Whatever she might think of the idea, Sakura would totally fit in back home. Give her a nice, tight, revealing costume and she could join Young Justice. Too bad she already had a team.

He wasn't sure if she was serious about working with him sometime or not but there was no way he could resist the challenge. "I can keep up if you think you can handle me babe. I may not be a ninja but my tactile telekinesis can take anything you throw at me."

Okay, so maybe she was showing off just a little. She could always chalk it up to research. The razor, though tiny, wasn't too bad a projectile. It didn't do a lot of damage, but it was easy to sneak into a hem or a sleeve. She was nowhere near as accurate as someone like Tenten, but she still wasn't bad.

She could even understand a little of Superboy's description. The need to keep a secret identity, that was just like using their various jutsu for disguises. It was helpful in infiltrating the enemy's territory and totally essential in some cases. And there were double agents to consider too.

"Tactile telekinesis?" she repeated, only smirking at Superboy's other boasts. Telekinesis was usually just a ruse other ninja would use to intimidate their opponent. They'd use anything from strings to sound waves to chakra manipulate things into appearing as though controlled by some kind of telekinetic power.

"What is that, exactly?"

The babe knew just the right questions to ask. "Tactile telekinesis is what gives me my powers." Kon told her proudly. "It lets me do almost anything. I can fly and I'm pretty fast," Not as fast as Superman or Impulse but fast. "It makes me invulnerable and gives me superstrength. That's just the basic stuff though. I can extend it to other people or objects and protect them from danger or I can use it to dismantle a villain's weapon before he even knows what hit him. If I can touch it then I can control it with my tactile telekinesis."

Kon seriously hoped Sakura didn't think to ask how he'd gotten injured if he was supposed to be invulnerable. He didn't want to admit that his TTK wasn't working right at the moment. That was sort of embarrassing. Even though he wasn't helpless even with his powers restricted it would be hard convincing her of that. Besides it was a minor problem at worst, he'd have it sorted in no time.

The first thing he'd do when he finally got his powers back would be to go flying. He'd never thought about it much before it was something he did all the time and not a big deal. But now that he couldn't anymore he really missed it.

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Day 38: Patients' Library

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