Doctor doctor, gimme the news

[cabbage-butt.livejournal.com]

After the meeting, and after some bickering with the Emergency Medical Hologram, down at the bottom of the Hub, Brainy is arranging the MedBay to his liking and familiarizing himself with the medical equipment and its functions.

Right now, for instance, as anyone walks in the door, he's wearing some sort of scanning goggles and a rather sinister-looking surgical glove with micro-scalpels, little lasers and surgical saws on the fingertips.

This makes him look like a green-faced Freddy Krueger with mad scientist goggles. For anyone that walks in like he instructed him to at the meeting, this is the first thing they see.

"Hmmmm."

Comments

[cabbage-butt.livejournal.com]

"I never said I was--better--"

Zuko's hand is caught and twisted into a painful wrist lock. (Leverage. It's a good thing). Most of the Legionnaires have trained one-on-one with Val Armorr at some point or another and Brainy is no exception.

However, that means he's not concentrating on the shield and leaving himself open.

"Just smarter."

[found-myway.livejournal.com]

Open is right. Zuko ignores the pain in his locked wrist and, not being one for banter, he strikes.

[cabbage-butt.livejournal.com]

That...ow. Yeah, now his face hurts. Those implants kinda hurt when they get smacked, and it's only because the Anomaly made them so durable that the one on his cheek isn't broken.

However, as Brainy slumps to the floor against a console, there is someone there to avenge him.

"KOKO! KOKO!"

A very upset monkey jumps on Zuko's face in retaliation for him beating up his green friend.

[found-myway.livejournal.com]

"Aaugh!"

Why do all the kids he tries to beat up have monkeys?

"Get off! Stupid bat-monkey!"

[cabbage-butt.livejournal.com]

"Stop! Stop, don't hurt him!"

He's not talking to Koko.

"He's just trying to defend me. Koko, off!"

The monkey stops tugging on Zuko's hair and jumps to the floor and bounds into Brainy's arms, where he sits slumped against the console.

"He doesn't know any better."

[found-myway.livejournal.com]

Oh great. Now he has to go and be all pathetic with his monkey. Zuko can't hit a kid who's being pathetic with his monkey.

Nevertheless, the point has to be driven home.

"Next time you insult me, I won't hold back."

[cabbage-butt.livejournal.com]

"Yes, because words condone wanton violence. I'll keep that in mind."

But he hasn't left the floor and isn't looking Zuko in the eye.

[found-myway.livejournal.com]

"You're lucky I'm the only firebender you've met."

This kid wouldn't last against Admiral Zhao. Not forever, anyway.

"Thanks for the twine."

And he leaves. He has an Avatar to find.

[cabbage-butt.livejournal.com]

Brainy waits, hardly moving, absently petting the fur of the little creature clinging to him, until he's sure Zuko is gone. His lip is bleeding. Fighting Zuko was like fighting Val. Val with flame powers. Even with as fast as he could process, Zuko moved so face he scarcely had time to think, let alone strategize.

"As I was saying," he says quietly. "This barbaric place takes some getting used to."

He's put up quite a good front, that he's in control and self-assured, but even though the situation isn't horribly unfamiliar, just like everyone else, he's thrown.

He's far from home. Not that such a thing has never happened before. He'd been pulled from the space between dimensions. He'd been lost to the far side of the universe before and found his way back.

There is, however, one key difference, one thing missing now that hadn't been missing then.

The Legion.

Lost in the void, on the other side of the galaxy--it didn't matter. He'd been with the Legion. He'd been with the Legion for the last few years of his life. He'd never been alone (except for his brief stint in prison over that time travel nonsense, but that was all part of Cos's plan). He'd made friends.

His loyalty lay with the Legion, his home is with the Legion, his life is the Legion. And there is nothing in the multiverse that can convince him there is anything out there better than that.

He knows people here, a few individuals are friendly, but for the most part, he can tell most dislike him. Perhaps even hate him. For someone so unschooled and unskilled at the social, it's something akin to torture talking to these people everyday.

"The rules are different," he says to Koko. Things he says that would've gotten an affectionate 'Brainy's just being Brainy' back home get him a punch to the face here. "I will have to...readjust my approach."

He will have to because as much as he wants to deny it, even if he will never admit it, over time he's come to adjust to and enjoy humanoid companionship. Friendship.

Now, to his great and horrible shame, he fears he can't function as well without it.