damned_institute | 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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Joe came in, having been told he missed breakfast. First lunch yesterday, and now he sleeps through breakfast? This wasn't good at all. Maybe he should sit tight until he could eat again.

In the meantime, he looked around for someone nearby to talk to. He walked over to someone who looked friendly enough, "Yo! I'm Viewtiful Joe."

Edited 2009-01-11 21:08 (UTC)

Wally glanced up at the stranger who'd spoken and smiled, setting aside the book. Conversation would be more fun anyway and might teach him something new to boot.

"Hey," he answered the cheery greeting. "I'm Wally West. So what're you in for?"

"I dunno, for being a superhero? I don't think I'm doing a good job here so far."

He found a chair to pull up and sat down. "If I could just find my V-watch, I'd be out of here so fast, and save everyone."

He couldn't help it, Wally tensed up automatically and stared in surprise at the word 'superhero'. While he knew that Bats, Clark, and himself weren't the only heroes in the institute, he hadn't met anyone who was just so... laid back about admitting it. It was kinda off-putting. At least Statesman and Tony had been more, well, serious about it all.

"You're a superhero?" he asked, and he didn't have to fake the doubt in his tone. "Uh, correct me if I'm wrong, but you don't exactly seem the superhero type..." Not strictly true; the League had a few different members who at first glance looked like they wouldn't last a second in a fight, but not everyone knew that and he was trying to act more 'average' to keep everything secret. Specially now that Bats was here too.

"So if you're a superhero, then what're your powers? And what's a V-watch and how's it gonna help you get out of here?" He still had his powers - well sort of anyway - and he was still here. But then again, when he'd first gotten here Wally had thought that he could just leave too, so maybe it was just that the guy was new.

"How long have you been trying to get out anyway?"

"Hey, I'll have you know Captain Blue himself gave me my V-watch. Just because I was only a superhero for, uh... a day?" He wasn't sure, he was pretty much constantly fighting the whole time, "before I got kidnapped, doesn't mean I'm not a hero. I watched all his movies, and I know all his moves, and I even saved the earth twice already! I just have my own style, eh?" He stuck out his tongue on the last word and gave Wally a thumbs-up.

"Besides, I can fight without my V-watch. It just makes me a real, movie hero. I can Zoom and Slow, like any good action hero, and I can even move at Mach Speed! I just got here yesterday, but I had to save a girl last night instead of trying to find my V-watch. And, uh, I didn't get very far when I tried to escape yesterday." He laughed and looked embarrassed, "I don't want to miss lunch today, though, so I'll wait."

If anything Joe's explanation just confused him more. Though the mention of movies made him wonder if the guy was really a superhero or if he was just one of those fans who got a little too into watching them on TV.

"So you learned how to be a superhero from watching movies?" Wally asked, sounded even more doubtful. Sure most of the League had weird reasons for having their powers, but he'd never heard of anyone learning how to fight and save people from watching movies. "I don't think it really works that way..."

And the talk about his own 'style' (since when were they supposed to have their own styles anyway? He must have missed that memo) and things like 'Zoom' and 'Slow' didn't help much there. But 'Mach Speed' sounded a lot like... a really cheesy name for superspeed. But still, what were the chances of finding someone else who had powers like his here of all places? "So lemme get this straight," he said aloud. "You learned how to fight and stuff from movies, and you have a bunch of powers that sound like they're to do with movies too? What are they exactly anyway? And do they still work here?"

Despite his skepticism that this guy really had any powers, Wally couldn't help but laugh wryly at the mention of an escape attempt. "Yeah, I don't think many people have had much luck there," he said with a shrug. "But they can't keep us here forever, right?" At least he really, really hoped not.

Something Joe said sounded familiar, and it took him a moment to place it. Wait, hadn't there been a note about him on the bulletin board? "Hey, if you're the Joe I'm thinking of, I don't know if hitting someone upside the head classifies as 'saving' them."

"Well, I learned how to be a hero by watching hero movies. Then, my girlfriend and I got pulled into one of Captain Blue's movies, and that's when he gave me the V-watch so I could be a real hero, with a transformation and a costume and everything. And then I saved her from... uh, Captain Blue. And my dad. There was some evil force making them act like bad guys, and just before I was gonna check it out... I was here."

"And my powers, I need my V-watch for. And I think I need to be in a movie too, but then I transformed in the real world when there were people cheering for me. But anyway, haven't you watched an action movie? Whenever something's in slow motion, it's way cooler, right? And the camera always zooms in on the hero right before he delivers his finishing move," now Joe was standing, and making punching motions in the air to punctuate his speech. "What better powers could there be?"

"Of course, if I don't have my powers, and I can't save a damsel without messing up, I guess I'm not much of a hero," he was still smiling, but it became a bit forced. "But I've got to keep trying, right? As long as we don't give up, it'll all work out."

While Wally might have been a bit skeptical about how Joe got his powers - if he was telling the truth about them after all - he couldn't deny that his own stories might have seemed just as odd in comparison. And besides, he seemed like he had the right idea about being a hero anyway. "Yeah," he said softly, almost like it was more to himself. "You shouldn't give up even when faced with stuff like this. There's always a way out..."

"And anyway," he said more confidently, glancing back up at Joe. "There's lots of others here with powers or magic or who are really smart, so it's not like we're all alone here." And he did have allies, one in particular that he trusted more than anyone to actually be able to find a way out of here. Of course, he couldn't tell Joe that it was all going to work out eventually because Batman was around, but that didn't change the fact that it would. It had to.

Day 38: Patients' Library

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