trans_9 | Phase 4 - The Mastermind Behind it All?

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Phase 4 - The Mastermind Behind it All?

Hal9000 had been defeated, but it isn't quite over yet. After the injured had been healed and Jaime Reyes had stopped blanking out, after they'd regrouped and got their stuff together, it was time to move on. Engineering and Neuropathy had yielded nothing fruitful.

They could, of course, just blow the ship to hell by messing with the engines, but that really didn't benefit them and they were already dead in space right now, the ship stopped in some random dimension. Neuropathy was locked down.

No, they had to make it to the bridge.

And this was one of the places on the way, a wide open area, sort of like a courtyard with something like a open-air cafe. A section tucked away was more like a lounge area, with a viewing window, like the one in Obs.

Here, someone was waiting for them, someone that had watched their every move.

He's not a very nice man. In fact...maybe they don't even have to go to the bridge. Maybe the one in control of it has come out to meet them.

[ooc: The old threads are still open, obvsly, but I'm trying to get everything up to keep things moving along.]

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"Do we have to keep arguing? Batman said he'd take him, he's not gonna die, and Brainy's kinda really smart so he probably thought it all through and anyways, I'm getting kinda bored just standing here." Bart rocked back and forth on his feet a little. "Slobo, I dunno if he's evil or what, but a lot of people here don't like him, and plus, he was being a jerk and wouldn'ta helped us unless we 'proved' we were good enough or whatever. He doesn't care about helping us and he wouldn't be helping us if it didn't look like we could also help him. That's not doing nothing wrong. Dunno if it's Supervillain or not, but it's not teamwork, that's for sure."

He glared at Slobo a little. "And, you know, maybe when he wakes up he'll be so distracted from being knocked out that he'll forgot the part where you blurted out my secret ID."

"I was under the impression that we were waiting for the Brainiacs to finish doing something inscrutable with their Thinking Machines. If not, however, and they have succesfully opened the doors...Who can get to and from the City the fastest?" Sheeana addresses the group but watches Slobo from the corner of her eye. There is a history here, one she intends to find out.

"Me," Bart says confidently. "But, um, I thought it was blocked or something?"

Katara, at this point, had started to lose her temper. She was mad at Slobo a moment ago, certainly when he was drinking with Lex And laughing about what they had went through. Once Lex had been knocked out though, and she saw the reactions of these so-called heroes, her mind began to compute exactly how ugly all of these actions were starting to look to her. In fact, a lot of it was starting to look like something that Jet would have done before she met him at Ba Sing Se. If this was what "heroes" did, she could definitely see why Slobo was reacting the way he was.

"I'd rather follow Slobo before you any day," she said to Bart, her face cold. "At least he has perspective. If you think knocking out somebody who hasn't even harmed us yet is being a good guy, you have a lot of growing up to do. I won't say the guy was good, but you've just proved exactly why Slobo shouldn't trust you in the first place. Why should he be anything like you? He's different. Jerk."

Katara paused, then looked at Slobo, then at Master Chief. "Jaime put you in charge, so I'll follow you. Because we have a duty to those people back there, and some of you here. What can we do?"

"Katara! The guy sat back and watched us when he could have helped us! He let Paco get injured." A finger jabs towards the one armed boy. "And Jaime nearly got killed. And if we hadn't gotten that plan figured out, he would have watched all of us die. This guy didn't offer us the help we could have used. Because he wanted to make sure we would be useful to him first. Does that remind you of anyone? Say, a certain nutso princess who tried to kill all of us? "

Sokka crosses his arms, frowning.

"I'd rather risk knocking the guy out then risk him turning out to be another Azula. What is with you? Did you forget everything we went through? Did you forget that someone like this guy almost killed us--almost killed Aang--before? We don't have any reason to trust him! And you're yelling at the good guys? This place must be messing with your head!"

< There will be no more arguing about this Luthor. He's unconscious, it's better he stays that way since there is too much arguing about him and this way there's no need for it as Brainiac 5 says. We will take him with us. We will not abandon him to be killed by an accident. And we are not leaving individuals behind. If there's splitting up, it will be a group where there is some safety in numbers. > Elfangor said to those who were still arguing, his tone sounding very final in thought speak.

Then he pointed to Slobo. < And someone tell him that, because if he didn't hear our psychic conversation, he might not have heard that. And if there's anymore arguing, I will tape that person's mouth shut until we can move on after the Brainiac 5's get the necessary data. >

Katara glared at Sokka. "I was arguing for SLOBO. As for that Lex guy, he may be plotting, but we also barely know him. Maybe YOU forgot that sometimes jumping into something isn't the best option, not for a hero. I remember, I was in jail for it. So don't you dare lecture me on trusting people again, and if you know what's good for you, don't mention her name! I know a bit more about that then you!"

And now Katara was turning away from her brother, because right now she didn't want to have anything to do with him. Knocking people out, then turning against Slobo for disagreeing with it: what kind of hero did he think she was, that she would just allow that? If Lex was like Azula, he would have attacked them, Azula would never have hesitated. No, Lex was still an unknown to her, and now she had no idea what to think when he was knocked out. What she did know was that she was starting to lose faith in this so-called group when she'd felt so united with them before.

She was starting to wonder if the world would ever make sense.

Bart scowled at Katara. "I'm not sayin' you should follow me, I'm sayin' you should follow Brainy. He's way smarter than me. And you can call me a jerk if you want, but I'm the one who was tryin' to save everyone, not the one who was sitting in a bar willing to let us all die."

He grinned appreciatively at Sokka. "He's almost killed Superman a lot in our world. And then became president. I don't know how different this one is, but yeah. I sure don't trust him. Though I could probably throw him pretty far If I got momentum going or something."

"Slobo never said he wanted us to die, I was pretty sure he was fighting with us," Katara replied. "Maybe you haven't noticed, but I want to keep this team together, and that includes Slobo. I get that he isn't as 'heroic' as you guys, but are you really going to say that he doesn't have a point? Besides, I told Leon I'd be on this team, and I am. I also told him that I would say my opinion if I disagreed too."

But that was enough. She didn't want to talk anymore. As far as she was concerned, these people were not her friends, just people she was going to work with now. It was obvious they could change what was "good" and what was "bad." So much for doing the right thing.

< Does anyone have duct tape? > You think he wasn't serious?

"Here ya go, dawg," Dark Smoke Puncher said, tossing over some duct tape.

Elfangor caught the duct tape, looking between Bart and Katara. < You both either will not talk unless it's to further the mission until we leave this area or you both will have your mouths taped shut. > He was not going to tolerate anymore fighting. < Childish behavior will get you both to be treated as children. >

Katara? Now you're starting to understand how Julian feels about the Avengers. They were going to have to talk, a little later.

As far as Lex went, he knew how Kon felt about the guy, but he can't say he approved of the way the so called heroes were handling it. How very... Avengery of them.

They weren't in any immediate danger, though, so he was willing to let everyone argue and simply observe for now. Things were at least getting interesting.

Bart glared at Elfangor. "First, you couldn't catch me, second, she's the one who keeps yellin' at me for nothing, third," he turned to Katara, "Slobo's my friend. Even if he's a jerk and I'm mad at him right now, but what are you even talking about? Of course Slobo didn't want us to die! And of course he's a hero, too! I mean, he's on my superhero team!"

Katara glared, but said nothing. She understood that her attempt to try and get everyone together had wound up splitting her too. But even she knew that Elfangor was right, because as much as she haeted this situation, she still wanted to help them get to the Bridge.

She walked over by herself, arms crossed.

< Perhaps I couldn't catch you, but it also means you will have to be moving fast and away from me, which means far more effort on your part to argue. That's good enough. > Elfangor said, ripping off a piece of duct tape and taking a step towards Bart.

Bruce watches in quiet fury. The crew had been aware of Lex's presence on the ship for minutes and he was already tearing them apart.

Well played, Luthor.

Edited 2009-11-05 23:14 (UTC)

Bart rolled his eyes and suddenly was holding the duct tape and spinning it around his finger. "Not really. You're slow. And now we're doing the arguing and don't you have better things to do than chase someone who can go close to the speed of light?"

"Showoff," Katara muttered.

Even at this young of an age, Bruce, Lex has learned how to still win, even if he loses.

And when he's conscious again, he'll claim his prize. After you all do the dirty work for him, of course. And if anyone gets hurt in the process? You'll have no one to blame but yourselves. He offered to help, but you chose to take him out of the equation, after all.

< Quiet, Katara. I can work with this, > Elfangor said in her head privately. < Don't you, Bart? > He said for him to hear now.

Billy is not happy. At all. In fact, he's so unhappy with the entire situation that he was stunned into silence for most of the duration of their argument. He'll definitely have some moral issues to grapple with when there's time to think over everything later.

"I admit that I'm not satisfied with how this was resolved either. To subdue a man unprovoked based on a disagreement...it's not the course I would have chosen. But that action has already been taken, and time's working against us. As I see it, all we can do now is protect Mr. Luthor and continue on."

Not that he sounds particularly thrilled about it. Billy turns to the monitor and the Brainies cracking at it, looking for an opportunity to help. "Can I be of any assistance with the information gathering?"

Brainy wordlessly pulls up a holoscreen and shoves it Billy's way. Get crackin', dude.

"Allen, Wyn, Robin, we could use your assistance, as well."

The more brains they have working on this, the faster they can crack it.

"Thank you." And he's on his way before the words are out of his mouth. At least computers can't talk back to you?

You people really frustrate the Chief sometimes.

"I'd like to clarify a couple of things," he says flatly.

"Firstly: Nobody is killing Lex Luthor. Secondly: I am not willing to risk the lives of the crew on trusting a man we have good reason to distrust. Besides the people who recognize him warning us, we have his actions. He has done nothing to help us and in inaction would have let us die in that maze without a single qualm."

"Thirdly: Right now he's unconscious. You can fight yourselves sick about him later, but right now we're dealing with a bridge full of enemies who outnumber us and will kill us when they figure out we're here. Not to mention whatever HAL released from Containment that is almost guaranteed to be tearing into our rear guard right now. We do not have time to argue about heroes and villains, we need to get in, finish, and get back."

"And finally: I never said I was a hero. I am a soldier. My job is to get all of us out of here alive as best I can, including that man." He nods toward Luthor. "He hasn't made a direct threat, but he hasn't proven himself very trustworthy either. For now we'll keep an eye on him. I'm not taking chances just because he's younger or from another world, if so many of you know a version of him that's bad news then I'm not laying our lives on the line on the off chance he might be different."

"Either way he can't be left undefended. That isn't decent, as has been said. I want to decide two things right now. One: What we're doing with Luthor immediately. Two: What we're doing to get to the bridge and get rid of the threat there."

He'd ask what the status is with Luthor's data, but he knows they'll tell him when they find something and asking won't hurry it.

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