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Luis had already been all over the medical bay, poking and prodding at things, messing with the tools and generally trying to get a sense of what all new toys he'd have to play with if the opportunity arose. The presence of patients made him feel guilty and he ended up stepping out after the wounded from the little skirmish had been brought in (besides, Leon's one friend was extremely hot and Luis felt like leering at her while she was unconscious was extremely creepy.)

That brought him to the special weapons division down the hall. An engineering department... seemed there were no general science labs. That was a shame. Oh well, he'd have to make do with two massive rooms full of fun and interesting scientific tools that he had no idea how to use, but very, very much wanted to learn.

You could find the self-proclaimed Spanish Stallion of Science putting his hands on literally everything in the special weapons division this afternoon, highly engrossed in his work of doing nothing productive but dreaming of all the science he could be up to in here.

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"So you're telling me that you're the head of the science division, and you only have basic - most likely archaic - understanding of actual science?" His eyes narrow slightly. "Clearly there's been some sort of error in the system," he mutters.

He continues to watch the other man suspiciously. "Considering they're projects and many of us work here, I find it hard to believe you didn't at least consider that they might belong to someone. And as for what that is," he says, assuming he's talking about the machine currently being examined, "well, I'm certain my explaining it in detail would go over your head."

Oh boy. What a charmer. The urge to smack this kid in the face was rising. "Biology is a science," he wanted to say, or "One time I invented a laser gun that could turn a mind-controlling parasite into jelly without harming your insides," or "Explain this!" and then punching him in the mouth. But Luis just paused for a moment as though trying to come up with a response to that and at last simply smiled again.

"I guess that's exactly what I'm telling you," he said brightly. "No hard feelings about getting promoted over you, or anything like that, right? I'm looking forward to working with you, amigo."

Self-proclaimed understanding of biology, pharmacology, and engineering or not, unless this man also came from some time in the future, Brainiac 5 doubted that he'd be of any use whatsoever in the Special Weapons Division, let alone as head of the area.

"Of course there's no hard feelings," he says, and frost could crystallise on his words for how cold his voice is. "After all, I'm sure you possess either the skill or ingenuity required to fulfil the demands of the job. In fact, I'm sure a simple question - what the ancillary flux differential of tachyon-derived shielding is, for example - would be proof enough that I'm mistaken in my doubts. Don't you agree?"

Luis stared at him rather blankly. Age discrimination. Discrimination because he came from a completely different age in time than this little jerk.

"Look," he said a moment later, "I'm not coming around to stomp all over your little tinker toys or usurp your position in the Laser Gun Division or whatever it is you are so up your ass about. In fact, I don't really give a shit about the Laser Gun Division. But if the powers that be that are holding us aboard this freakshow of a cruise liner tell me I'm going to be head of the science division, god dammit, I am going to listen to them before they decide to probe me or something."

He folded his arms over his chest. "How about you save the snotty questions designed to make me look stupid, and show me the ropes in this place so I might make myself useful? Or, barring that, you could get over the fact I'm going to be in and out of here on a regular basis and I can just leave you to your work, and you can just check up once a week or so and let me know if you're creating something that could kill us all."

That does it. Brainiac 5 turns away from the pretence of working on his (rather scorched) experiment and stalks over to glare up at the supposed head of the division. "What I'm so... annoyed about," he snaps, "is that apparently someone or something has chosen the least qualified person possible to oversee this division. You admit to knowing little about what might actually be useful here, and you're clearly not from a technologically advanced time period."

He folds his arms, unconsciously mimicking the other man. "I can't help but wonder if perhaps you weren't given the position to help at all," he says suspiciously.

"By all means, wonder away. When you're done wondering, you can look at the same roster I looked at, where it has my name right next to 'Chief of Science Staff,' if you are so inclined," Luis offered, pulling out his omnicom for emphasis.

"Now on the other hand, if there is another son of a bitch named Luis Sera wandering around here, that's another story entirely, and I'd like you to send him immediately to me and tell him to stop using my credit card to charge liquor and late-night takeout deliveries."

"I'm not arguing that you've been assigned to that role," Brainy answers, "just wondering exactly why you were picked out of the number of people with more experience both here and in their own times and dimensions. And who made the choice."

He turns away, ignoring the offered Omnicom and heading back towards his what's left of his workspace. "Especially considering I'm a twelfth-level intellect, and there's two of me on board. If anyone is qualified for this..." It would most likely be his counterpart, due to his being older and having been here longer. But still. He could have lived with that more easily than this 'Luis'.

"You know, that's a really good question," Luis said in that fake bright voice again. "I'd actually like to know myself, seeing as I don't have two tenths of a clue what's going on around here, how I got here or why I am here in the first place. If you know who I could ask, that would be fantastic."

Brainiac 5 gives a huge, over the top, exasperated sigh. "You're on Stacy, which is some kind of vast ship that has seen fit to abduct people from different places in space and time and store them in the pod chambers. Occasionally she releases groups of us, claiming we're needed for some kind of advanced purpose and not really explaining anything beyond that. Sometimes we're sent out on missions, though I don't believe anyone has figured out why as of yet."

He pauses, looking over the remains of his experiments and trying to remember when it was last he took a break from working. Deciding that the answer is 'too long', he turns back to address Luis once more. "Congratulations, you now know about as much as anyone else does. If you have any other questions, I'd suggest taking them up with the Captain, who you may have noticed on the command list. Unlike certain other people there, he seems to be actually qualified for his job."

Checking that he isn't leaving anything important behind, Brainiac 5 heads for the door. "Now if you'll excuse me, I have other places to be."

"Wonderful," Luis said cheerfully, clapping his hands and rubbing them together. "I'll be sure to talk to the captain and tell him how very helpful you've been! Now, you have a nice day, and I'll see you here bright and early tomorrow morning for a briefing on current projects."

This was not the first time Luis was going to share a lab with someone who desperately hated him. He was very used to it. In fact, he almost thought it added a little excitement to the daily grind.

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