damned_institute | Dayshift 49: Bus 2

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Dayshift 49: Bus 2

Morning hit without warning, with the sheer knowledge hitting the Digimon before anything else that today they were going back to Doyletown. Her feet hit the floor and she rotated her right shoulder experimentally. The skin stretched tight, soreness persevering, but it moved fine. She stretched her fingers then curled them into a fist, staring at the tanned skin that was her right arm. If something happened this time... She would be more useful. Her mind replayed the events of last week, and Renamon stilled, considering.

There wasn't much time left to her as the nurse bustled in with an armful of clothes, the same shade as the weeks before. The woman murmured a cheery complaint that it was too cold for skirts and left Renamon to change. The pants were preferable to the past two weeks, though the other item she was left with gave too much to irony. She frowned at it for a minute, then slid it over her head, reflecting that this motion in days or weeks past would have left her shuddering. It meant she was becoming used to this human body, and that was nothing that boded well. She grabbed her notebook before being led to a bus, and slid into a seat halfway down the aisle, pressing against the window. Again, the previous night had been more than short. Was it just her, or was there something more to it?

[for Haseo!]

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Brainiac 5 glanced up as another patient approached, blinking and unconsciously making what was likely a very odd expression at the sight of the sweater the other boy was wearing. It was probably a good 78% of the reason for the Design Aesthetic Wars of 2231 all on its own.

"Huh?" he said, temporarily distracted by the assault on his vision. He caught up quickly enough, however, though the initial question still stood. "'Twips'?"

While he wasn't familiar with the term, the context did help suggest it's meaning well enough. "I suppose... I do have to wonder how much of this is on purpose, considering everything else that seems to happen around here."

Pulling out the hairbands that kept her red hair up, Asuka took the first and aimed it at the back of Brainiac's head. It unfortunately flew right over.

Well shit!

She tried again, aiming a little farther down at his neck. "Hey! Brainy boy!"

Terry couldn't exactly blame the kid for the way he looked at the sweater. After all, he was pretty sure something like that had to inspire pretty bad nausea on viewing. Terry, for one, knew that the idea of wearing it made him want to lose it.

When the kid questioned his word use though, Terry had a whole knew reason to sigh. "Uh. Dorks? Something like that. Sorry." He shrugged slightly, eyeing the contents of his breakfast bag. "It's so common where I'm from that I forget not everyone's heard it."

He was about to comment on the apparent love of torture on all levels (this seemingly designed to specifically target the teenage ego), when Terry saw something sail over the kid's head. The voice that sounded out behind them sort of helped him figure it out, and Terry turned his head to try and identify the owner and apparent shooter. It really was a return to every bad elementary school field trip ever.

"Fan of yours?" Motioning behind them with a shrug of his shoulder, Terry grinned. "I'd say she's got a crush on you, but Brainy boy's kind of a harsh name for someone you like."

"It's fine," Brainiac 5 answered. "To be honest, I'm sure there are many expressions I'm familiar with that would be equally confusing. Where are you from?"

He'd been intending to elaborate a little, or maybe ask the other boy's name as well, but was cut off when something sailed over his head and a moment later another object hit the back of his neck surprisingly hard. "Ow!"

Twisting around in his seat, Brainiac 5's eyes narrowed into a glare when he spotted Asuka. "We're not friends," he directed to the other boy, though his eyes didn't leave Asuka and the next part was more directed at her. "And my name is Brainiac 5 or Brainy. Not 'Brainy boy' or anything of the sort."

His frown deepened and he sighed irritably. "What do you want anyway?"

"Right. Brainy. Whatever, hey listen..." With a shit-eating grin put in place, Asuka leaned over the back of the seat in front of her, no doubt making the sitter uncomfortable. "I thought it would be in your best interest to switch spots with me. This guy beside me knows a lot about math and I am sure you and he would get together wonderfully. And hey, you guys can fap in binary with each other. That seems right up your alley..."

One name, and suddenly Terry's whole morning was shot. The strange girl flinging hair ties suddenly became seriously unimportant, and Terry turned around in his seat to hopefully dismiss her. "That's okay, Red. Brainiac and I are doing just fine. Besides, I've got some things to talk to him about too."

Turning to the boy in the seat next to him, Terry let his expression grow serious. He dropped his voice, not wanting to make a bigger scene than what they already had going on. Especially not if this kid--geez, a Brainiac kid--was anything like the one Terry had read about in the history books.

"Some place that's heard of you. Or at least, a version of you, if you're number 5." Sometimes Terry wondered if he'd become overly suspicious since taking on the mask of Batman, but this wasn't one of them. He knew what Brainiac was capable of, and just what it had taken to beat him. "Superman's pretty famous where I'm from. So are the guys he fought against. Including ones that wanted to absorb the knowledge of the universe and then destroy it."

"I don't think so," Brainiac 5 answered flatly. "I'm fine sitting right here, not to mention I have no idea what you mean by 'fap', nor do I want to. The bus ride will end eventually, so I'm sure you can survive until then."

With that said, he turned back around in his seat to face the right direction and look out the window, wondering how long the bus trip would take. The other boy spoke up again, and Brainiac 5 glanced at him sharply, all his attention now focused on what he was saying. He hadn't run into anyone really who knew about his ancestor or even what the name 'Brainiac' really meant. He'd gotten used to not having to explain things, or worry if people would find out about it and judge him based on a name.

Apparently he should have realised that wouldn't last.

"I'm nothing like him," he said as calmly as he could manage, lowering his own voice to match the other boy's. "I may be the fifth to have the Brainiac name, but I am not my ancestor. I rejected everything he represented some time ago."

So Brainiac 5 wasn't going to even try to deny it, huh? Made sense, given how smart the original was supposed to have been. But Terry knew some other things about the first one too, thanks to an interest in major villains that'd recently sparked. And since Red had decided to leave them alone for the moment, he could pry a little more.

"Wish I could just believe it that easily." And Terry really did; even if it made him a better crime-fighter, Terry missed being naïve sometimes. Then again, given just how bad things had gotten without Batman? Better that he make the sacrifice than someone else. "But the original was a program, right? And computers don't overcome that sort of thing." Not most, anyway. He couldn't help thinking about Zeta just then. Another machine who'd been programmed for destruction, and chose, actually chose something else for himself.

"So why'd you give it up?" Batman had heard Zeta's story, and even if he hadn't been convinced, he couldn't deny what had happened. Maybe this guy had something like that happen too. Or maybe he was just trying to fool everyone while he was stuck in a human body. Terry didn't know for sure, but he intended to find out.

He couldn't help it; Brainiac 5's eyes narrowed and he tensed noticeably at being likened to a computer program. He'd spent a lot of his life trying to get away from that idea and being reminded of it here, where he was ironically forced into a human body, wasn't anything he appreciated.

"Why should I have to justify myself and my choices to you?" he answered hotly. "You might know something of my ancestor's activities and the legacy forced onto me, but I don't answer to you or anyone else."

Folding his arms and fixing the other boy with a glare, Brainiac 5 continued. "I made my decision a long time ago, and I've proven myself to the people who matter most. I don't have to prove myself to you as well. Especially not when I don't know who you are and we're both trapped here.

"Not to mention that, in case you haven't noticed, I'm hardly in any position to go around imitating my ancestor anyway. I'm human now."

Apparently Terry had gained the remarkable ability to turn people off at every opportunity. Couldn't say he liked the change as a general rule, but in this case? Making nice with a Brainiac wasn't exactly his goal. Though it might have made the conversation go smoother.

"Not entirely, no. But it's something I need answered." Calling the orginal Brainiac his ancestor put Five into the future, and that was dangerous for Terry. Just what year was he from? If he was lying and Terry revealed too much, it could put everyone in danger. "Believe me, I wish I could trust you, or just not even care. I can't."

The glares didn't phase Terry; he'd gotten far too many from the master for that. But he didn't like the guilt that was twisting in his stomach over it. He really might be pressing an innocent kid. "Look, your ancestor did terrible things. Back home, I'm in a position to stop guys like that. And that responsibility doesn't go away just because I'm here. If you've really turned your back on it, then maybe you can understand. If I don't do everything I can to keep people safe, even if it's just finding out information? Then it's not good enough. Clearly it doesn't make me popular, but it lets me sleep at night." In a manner of speaking.

"I know better than anyone what my ancestor was capable of," Brainiac 5 answered flatly. Not many people knew the full history of Brainiac 1.0 for one thing, and for another... Brainiac 5 could still easily remember his first-hand experiences with his ancestor and the damage he'd done to the galaxy even in the short period of time he'd been under the original Brainiac's control.

He didn't imagine the patient next to him had any way of knowing any of that, however. So it stung that he was acting as though Brainiac 5 wouldn't know what his own ancestor's crimes were.

"'Maybe I can understand'?" he repeated, folding his arms and frowning at the other boy. "I don't expect you to know anything about me, since you're clearly leaping to all the wrong conclusions now, but I'm part of a team called the Legion of Super Heroes, based in New Metropolis in the thirty-first century. I've been part of that team for the last five years since I left Colu, and I've more than proven that I am not the enemy here."

That said, he fixed the other teen with a pointed look. "So, are you going to tell me anything about yourself, or do you want to keep digging up things about my personal history?"

No, Terry didn't know anything about Five, which was why he was asking. Of course, it took a lot of effort not to say that as he thought it. Instead Terry tried to remember that if this guy really was telling the truth, he had a pretty good reason to be ticked. After all, Terry didn't just like bragging about his less-than-perfect past, right? And those were things Terry himself had done; this kid was just born to a bad line.

So he focused on the minor details, at least for now.

"Thirty-first century? Seriously?" Terry suddenly understood how others must have felt talking to him, at least a bit. "You're from even farther in the future than me, then." So, what did that mean in terms of making his reasons even clearer to Five? Terry knew that a lot of insane technology had been developed, even before his time. It wouldn't exactly be far fetched to think that Five could jump into a time machine and deliver a juicy tidbit or two to a past version, if he wanted. "Here I thought I was the only one from our world not from the classic days of the Justice League."

Terry thought it over for a minute, then shrugged. If Five really was from the future, then he might already know all about Terry McGinnis and his role as the second Batman. Considering all the data the old man had managed to gather, it didn't seem too out of the question; when it came down to it, Bruce Wayne was just a human. Who knew what Five would be capable of? "I'm from Gotham, about a thousand years before you. And it sounds like we're in the same line of work."

Except Terry had only been at it for a matter of months, and he still had a secret identity to think about. Five probably had to be quite a bit more open about things, kind of like Kurt. The line about being in a human body now pretty much pointed to that, anyway. And on top of that, there was the fact that Terry had turned down the JLU's invitation when it came. Not a pretty situation overall, given how it started. Being greeted with suspicion and a lack of trust; now just who had been acting like that just a few minutes ago?

"Look, I'm sorry about giving you a hard time." Terry let out a sigh, and leaned his head against the back of the seat. He really was letting Wayne get to him a little too much. Suspicion had its place, but Terry didn't like how this whole thing had started off. "It's a bad habit I need to reign in."

Brainiac 5 had guessed the other boy was from sometime in the past - that much was obvious - but also some time after his ancestor had been most... active. Of course, that meant there was still a good several hundred years that he could have come from, even cutting out the times he couldn't be from since there hadn't been any superheroes on Earth for a few hundred years before the Legion was formed. So that much wasn't really surprising, though it was interesting that he still said he was from approximately a thousand years before. So he obviously was far enough in Superman's future to know certain key details, but not a huge amount of time.

"I'm used to being from the future in comparison to most people," he said absently, thinking. Gotham... There was really only one hugely significant heroic (the term used more loosely in this instance) figure from that city, and unfortunately it was also one of the ones that was least known about. Not to mention that, while Batman had been the most notable figure and therefore the one mentioned most in what little history there was from that time, it didn't mean he was the only hero from Gotham then.

So either the other patient assumed he was going to be extremely well-known after even a thousand years (and Brainiac 5 knew what Booster Gold looked like, so that ruled that out), or he hadn't really told him much of anything.

"Why exactly should I trust you?" he wondered aloud. "You haven't even told me a name yet, and you likely know as well as I do that saying you're from Gotham in the past doesn't mean much of anything. What's to say that you haven't decided to try and end the 'Brainiac threat' personally, now that you know I'm-" Vulnerable. "-human."

Edited 2010-05-05 01:37 (UTC)

"Either that, or it might have told you everything. I was seeing what I could get away with not saying." Especially since Terry had to be especially cautious now. He still couldn't trust Five completely, but at the same time, he didn't want to alienate the guy any more than he already had. If they really were on the same side, Terry couldn't help but think that intellect would come in handy.

"For now, just call me Alex." Good old fake name. It wasn't like Five couldn't figure out that it was an alias, or that he couldn't find out Terry's real name from any of the nurses. Of course, that'd only do him any good if McGinnis was in the history discs; from what Five was saying, he might not be. Somehow Terry thought that might be for the best.

But now it was Terry's turn to frown at the question that had been posed. Okay, maybe he deserved it on some level, but seriously? Just what did his history say about Batman if Five even thought that was a possibility? "You mean what's to say I won't kill you, right?" Terry knew well enough just the sort of reputation Batman had, but he also knew that was one line that Bruce had never crossed--and neither would he. "Sorry. Don't know how heroes handle it in the future, but that's something I don't do."

"Not really," Brainiac 5 pointed out, tone matter-of-fact and direct. "Since I'd already told you I was from the thirty-first century, you're either assuming that there's only a handful of notable figures from Gotham even after a thousand years, or you're working under the assumption that I know every single figure in 'my line of work' from a thousand years of history on a planet that isn't my own."

Half-turning in the seat to lean against the side of the bus as well as watch Alex - there was a high probability it wasn't the other patient's real name, considering the time period he was from and the circumstances of their meeting - Brainiac 5 studied him a moment before answering.

"It's against Legion code to take the life of another sentient," he said calmly, though not without the faintest twinge of shame that he was fairly sure didn't reach his voice, though he glanced away briefly.

"However history files are a lot less complete about the beliefs of some ancient heroes..." He trailed off, his pointed look hopefully conveying the rest.

"Or that I'm at least connected to someone who would stand out." Which might be giving away more than Terry would like, but it still was worth saying. "And I really wouldn't be surprised if you did know every one of them, all things considered." Given how much Five had seemed to like that computer comment earlier, Terry figured it might be best to just leave it at the implication that Five was probably pretty damn smart.

The wording was interesting, when Five talked about the code. "Against Legion code, but what about yours personally?" Terry knew pretty well how the morality of a person could differ from even another person, much less a group. "And what qualifies as taking another life anyway? Sure, you might not actually kill them, but what if you don't save them either?" Like Terry hadn't saved Fixx, or Big Time--like Bruce had stopped him from saving al Ghul. Even Freeze or Kairi, both of whom Terry had tried to save, but failed to.

"You were born into your legacy, right?" Well, in a manner of speaking. Terry didn't exactly want to think just how Brainiac reproduction worked. "I chose mine. And the guy who first wore the mask never killed. It'd be spitting in his face if I did now. I've got too much respect for him and all the work he's done for that."

It was very likely that Alex was connected in some way to Batman, then. Though he doubted the other patient knew exactly how little was known about that twenty-first century hero. Large parts of Superman's legacy recorded in the museums was pure myth and legend, and he'd been well-known in the past. Batman... most of it was rumour, superstition, and stories told to scare children. Brainiac 5 knew more than most, enough to know the man had existed and a bit about what he'd achieved despite how he'd avoided being documented, but information was still extremely scarce.

Still, it would be better to let Alex wonder how much he knew about him and Batman, at least for the time being. He could learn more that way, if he was careful.

His eyes narrowed at Alex's implications. "I don't kill," he said sharply, and perhaps a tiny bit too quickly. "The idea... I agree with the Legion's code. It's wrong, and I would never willingly do such a thing. And choosing not to save someone when you had the ability and opportunity to is the same as if you killed them yourself. I would never do that. No one in the Legion would."

The glare softened as Alex spoke again and he sighed, some of the tension draining from his shoulders. "...I suppose I can understand that feeling. Part of the reason I left Colu and joined the Legion was because of Superman's influence. Reading about how he faced my ancestor and everything he stood for...."

He turned to look out the window at the drab, almost washed-out scenery. "...I wanted to be like that. I wanted to atone for what my ancestors had done and make the name Brainiac mean something different. Better."

Five wasn't saying anything in regards to Terry's latest comment about old heroes, which left him to wonder just what he'd gleamed from it. Well, it was pretty obvious, given what information had already come out. But since Five wasn't pushing anymore, Terry stopped offering. He was more comfortable dealing with general ideas anyway.

And Five went back on the defensive, so Terry held up his hands in a placating gesture. "Easy. That wasn't a shot at you, promise. I just know that a lot of heroes have crossed the line, or at least wanted to. Even Superman went rogue one time--though that probably doesn't count since he wasn't in control at the time. But you get the picture, right?"

Then what came next was a little unexpected, if only because Terry knew exactly what Five was talking about. The circumstances weren't the same, but that feeling of guilt, that need to atone? That was Terry's motivation too. And while his suspicious spirit warned that maybe Five really did know more about the past than he let on, this time Terry ignored it. Something in his gut was telling him that the kid was being genuine, and Terry didn't want to turn his back on that. "You've probably done a lot more toward that goal than you think. Unless you're going to give up because a punk kid started giving you a hard time."

It probably wouldn't be welcome, but Terry put a hand on Five's shoulder anyway. Nothing harsh or firm, but just a gesture of acceptance and support. "I do get it, though. So thanks for telling me. I won't give you a hard time about it again."

"If it wasn't a shot at me, why bring it up in the first place?" he pointed out, though all the same, Brainiac 5 relaxed a little at Alex's words. But at the mention of Superman, he vehemently shook his head. "Superman would never do something like that unless he was mind controlled or worse. Of course it doesn't count."

He sighed, and went back to gazing out the window at the scenery. "It doesn't feel like I have sometimes. My ancestor..." He snorted and glanced sidelong at Alex. "Well, you seem to know a fair bit about him already. It's a lot to try and counteract. Especially since now I'm here... It doesn't feel like I've made much progress."

He jumped at the hand on his shoulder, and there was a moment of genuine surprise in his expression before he smiled slightly. "Thank you, Alex."

Then the smile became more of a smirk. "But don't think I've forgotten that you started this conversation as a... 'punk kid giving me a hard time'."

Edited 2010-05-06 12:38 (UTC)

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Dayshift 49: Bus 2

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