trans_9 | Here's the deal these days: They know exactly who we are. They know exactly where we live.

It is indeed with a Brainiac's cold, clinical detachment that he starts working on Sam's brain, the anti-microbe field humming away and making everything sterile around the med-table. Various tubes and whatnot appear to inject Sam with things like packed blood cells, and syringes jab him with anaesthesia--yes, Brainy had started working without it, although only by cleaning and preparing the outer wound; he's not touching the gooey stuff until the anesthesia kicks in.

But it's not like Sam's in any state to really notice.

Scans are running in real-time, both in floating holo screens and the goggles, showing Brainy where the damage is. The bullet appears to have left very few bullet fragments behind. The wound is rather clean. This is good. Most of the debris is bone tissue. The swelling and bleeding are severe, though, and it's crossed both hemispheres, oblitering the entirety of the frontal lobes.

That...is bad.

"When all the infested have been detained, and the current crisis is over. I can maintain control as long as I need to. Are Superboy and Speedy infested as well, or was I correct that it's just Kate?"

He's likely correct.

Kara nodded as she shut the machine off. She turned to Brainy. "It's just Kate. And Robin, apparently. I'm sure Kon's ridiculously happy about that." She crossed her arms and leaned against a counter. Crossing her legs as she stood, she set the gadget down. "Brainy...just...promise me you'll be careful, alright? I don't...I mean...I'd hate it if...I mean...I care...Sam might be really delicate right now."

"Kara, as I forcibly rip knowledge from it about brain structure that its species is privy to due to their control of other sentients' brains, the Yeerk is currently curled in the corner of my skull, screaming to be let out."

Wait, crap, that just made him sound horrifying. And like a Brainiac.

Then again, he is a Brainiac, and it tried to control his mind, his mind. He was beaten and shot full of rock salt, and it dared to try to control his mind, dared attempt impose its will upon him.

"That is to say: I'm perfectly fine."

The Yeerk is the one suffering right now.

"Superboy, however, is not, and neither are you. I have--"

The Emergency Medical Hologram suddenly appears.

"Please state the nature of the medical emergency."

"Now you show up, you infernal, useless pile of data," Brainy says, irritated that it didn't appear when he attempted to activate it earlier.

"You have two patients with a variety of injuries. Tend to them. One is infested with an alien parasite. Do not attempt extraction--it will release on its own within three days. Do not allow her to go free, whatever she commands. Assist the male with supportive IV. You should find it possible to pierce his skin in his current state. He needs hydration."

To Kara, he says, "I have a iodide bonding compound that should help resolve some of Superboy's symptoms, and restore you to your full capacity," he says to Kara. "It's in the front left pouch."

Of the belt. That he's wearing.

What? He absolutely cannot stop doing what he's doing with his hands right now. Y'know, brain surgery.

Edited 2009-02-23 09:42 (UTC)

"..."

Kara looked a the hologram that Brainy had been talking to before looking back at him.

"Sure. Why not."

Maybe he's not built like humans and Kryptonians. Maybe his boy bits are...no, she's seen him naked.

Dammit.

Setting her jaw, she walks over to Brainy, her cape swishing, and gingerly reaches into Brainy's pouch and pulls out the, umm, bonding compound.

"There's a hypospray on the counter. Administer ten CCs to Kon, and five to yourself. You should start feeling more like yourselves shortly, though without the proper quantities of yellow sunlight, you're not going to be at full strength, Superboy especially so."

Shame he's too occupied to enjoy the manhandling. Sam's life's at stake, after all, and really, there's nothing right now that could distract him from that fact.

However, he actually winces because of her other hand accidentally brushing against his back, but fortunately, he has some steady hands.

On closer glance, the damage that's been done to him is much more readily apparent. Blue-green bruises on his face, and his suit only appears to be solid, but it's been shredded open and the back is all gooey from the sealant inside it covering his wounds like a liquid bandage. Not that it's helping, with a nice handful of rocksalt ground into his skin. It needs proper debridement, but he doesn't have time for that.

Edited 2009-02-23 09:58 (UTC)

Kara starts to place her hand on his cheek but stops himself.

He's operating. And he looks...Kara closes her eyes. "Brainy..." she trails off before shaking her head. "Let me get right on fixing Kon, and then I'll start on myself." And when I'm done with that, Nurse Kara is coming to fix you up, handsome.

"Hurry. I want at least one of us available to defend the MedBay if any of the other infested come along, and this is likely going to take some time."

Although it's amazing what some of the available shortcuts are, with Stacy's technology. In Kara's time, on Earth, brain surgery takes up to seven hours or more. In his time, perhaps an hour or two, if performed by someone as dexterous and knowledgeable as a Coluan surgeon. With his hands, with this technology, with the automated functions available, he might have the main part of the surgery wrapped up in ten to fifteen minutes.

Absolutely incredible.

"While I'm hoping someone else can help Terry, we may be the only ones available. There's no telling how many of the crew have been taken or killed."

As Blue Beetle had been. He's trying not to think about how his handling of the situation differently might've spared Jaime's life, trying not to think about how his death might wreak havoc on the timestream, if he wasn't meant to die yet. It's difficult, but he has to. He can't allow himself to get frustrated when every single hand moment needs to be so...delicate.

He's waffling on the idea of holing up here and defending MedBay. What if the MedBay is wrecked even further, and the injured have no place to be treated? Should they try to make this a defensible position, anticipating that the injured might be brought here soon?

Were there any injured or is everyone else infested or dead? Right now, the door is sealed, and will only open if he commands it, and he has the exterior of it on a monitor. They'll control the conditions of access.

But right now, it's one challenge at a time, and having faith that the others are handling their own crises well without need of assistance, while they handle this one.

He's quiet for a time, as he works, and as Kara works. Kon stirs, and his vitals strengthen as Kara treats him, but isn't quite awake yet.

Brainy finally says, "You thought I'd truly betrayed you at the beginning. Not because of any coercive force or entity, either. You were honestly expecting that of me?"

Edited 2009-02-23 10:25 (UTC)

"Brainy..." Kara starts to adminster the meds to Kon. "...I went for the worst possible thought, the one thing I had feared about you when we first met. I fell back on stereotypes." She turns to him. "For what it's worth, I'm sorry."

He's silent again for a time.

It had certainly been for himself and his own free will that he'd fought so hard against the Yeerk. But also for the crew, to infiltrate the Controllers and assist his crew-mates. He'd risked capture to find the Yeerk pool and allowed infestation rather than fighting to the death (which he would've much-preferred, over mind control), on the off-chance that he could maintain control and glean useful information from his captors.

The scans he's using right now, of Sam's brain--that he'd taken discreetly, and now knew from his Yeerk how to subtract the "junk data" (that'd been Sam's Yeerk) from the scans--to reconstruct Sam's brain had to be taken discreetly because so few trusted him. While he'd obeyed the Chief's request to memorize his personal information, he'd lied when he said he'd stopped scanning without permission.

And his reason for doing that is THIS. Right here. This moment where he knew it'd be needed, where he knew he'd need all the right things to save someone, and that it didn't matter what he did to obtain those things as long as he had them on hand.

They'll never trust you, says the Yeerk. It can still talk to him, after all. It still has access to his memories, even if it can't effect any sort of flashback or neural change. It just knows, and it can talk to him about what it knows, just as he's been doing the same.

No one will ever trust you. She will never trust you. You want her to trust you, don't you. You won't even admit it to yourself. But she won't.

Silence, pest, he responds.

No one trusts a Brainiac. And why should they?

As much as he doesn't want to admit to himself, it's true, and it stings. Back home, at least...

The Legion didn't really trust you, either. You were just useful to them--

The Yeerk is blasted with a barrage of contradicting thoughts and mathematical proofs. Enough to cause it pain, even agony.

It will be silent. He's working.

His voice is flat. "I found it admirable that Superboy's very first assumption was the correct one--that his friend was somehow being controlled," he says. "However, I suppose this will just be an ongoing trend. Assuming I'm betraying you whenever that's the most convenient explanation, rather than extrapolating what will always be the truth if such a thing happens--that it's an act or mind control or some other external force."

He's hurt. He thought he'd made a friend, like back home. They trusted him. They did. The Yeerk is an idiot and needs to shut up with its sluggy lies.

Edited 2009-02-23 10:58 (UTC)

"Brainy, I'm new. To Earth. And it's ways. I was only there a few months before I was scooped up and brought here. I don't even remember much of my life on Krypton. You know that." She finishes with Superboy. "And then, I come here, I meet you, and the next thing I know, I'm falli --" Kara stopped midsentence. "I sometimes don't know how to act around you, Brainy. Or what to think when I'm around you. I mean, I just..." Kara took a deep, shuddery breath. "Do you know how much you confuse me sometimes?"

"I suppose it must be somewhat bewildering to have someone from a family line that's tormented your own family and your people as a whole not be a mad supervillain, yes."

Wrong translation of 'you confuse me,' Brainy.

Okay, brain surgery, done, thanks to the ruthless efficiency of the Coluan focus and attention to detail. Now to download his scans and start neural regeneration, as well a rigorous course of antibiotics.

Sam may yet live, although whether he manages to ever be conscious again, or has severely impaired cognitive function remains to be seen and largely depends on possible infection, and how well Stacy's medical systems can regrow neurons.

He sighs.

"Terry--and the others--likely needs assistance, but I can't leave Sam unattended, as in, I cannot leave where I'm sitting right now. The surgery is finished--in record time, I might add--and he's undergoing neural regeneration, but he's having clotting issues and I'm barely keeping the ischemic cascade under control. I'm currently making by-the-second adjustments to his medication regimen. If someone attacks, all I can do is shield him and hope for the best. If I stop, he could die."

He doesn't like this. He wants to go help. There might be more injured. He should probably tell Kara to go, but a) he's afraid Dracon beams could cut her down as her invulnerability won't be up to par again without some yellow sunlight, and b) he can't get up his his seat if someone attacks. He's watching every chemical reaction going on his brain right now and adjusting accordingly. If he misses anything, it could cause a chain reaction that could make the damage significantly worse or irreparable.

Edited 2009-02-23 11:23 (UTC)

"Brainy...I mean...emotionally. You confuse me. In that I have feelings for you that I'm trying to make sense of." She walks up to him and looks him straight in the eye. "As in I like you in maybe a way that I shouldn't, but I do. And so when I saw you pretending to betray us, I went for the worst possible scenario, because from what I remember of Krypton, everyone I loved had betrayed me, so I just expected it to happen again."

She sets the gadget down - having completely forgotten to treat herself, and turned away. "I'll go help Terry."

When she looks at him, he looks back at her through the translucent holoscreen.

Huh?

"Huh?" He blinks, still confused. That's possibly the first time the typically erudite Coluan has ever said something as dumb as "huh?"

Okay, he has no idea what the hell she's talking about, but now's not the time for it, right? So he's not going to think about it. Crisis situation and everything. Someone's just died, but then that might be why she's saying these things, since they might die here today. Still, his reaction, therefore, is to pave over the fact that she's said that, and dismiss it as completely irrational.

In fact, he says, eyebrows raised, "Kara, I fear the kryptonite has affected your mind. A similar syndrome is quite common in Daxamites when they're poisoned with lead--inhibitions are lowered and they're prone to delusions, even after an antidote is administered. Their physiology is not so different from your own, so a similar post-kryptonite poisoning syndrome is likely."

This likely seems cold and dismissive to her, unfortunately, but he has to for his brain to even continue functioning right now, and he need to do everything he can to keep his brain from shutting down and going "whuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuut?" especially with a brain parasite in it. He's got a life to save, doncha'know.

Besides, it probably is kryptonite poisonong. Making her craaazy. That's the only reason she'd say something like that.

"Before you go, don't forget to administer that to yourself first," he reprimands, "Obviously, you're still feeling the affects of the kryptonite and your judgment is altered. And--come here. For a moment." He can't get up, after all, and he has to give her something.

He temporarily sets the medical AI on monitoring duty. He can't do that for more than a moment. The AI likely doesn't have the same judgment an organic does. This is why even despite it, he still keeps looking over to make a minute adjustment here and there.

Edited 2009-02-23 11:51 (UTC)

Kara blinks.

Oh he did not just give me the brush-off. Me! I'm freakin' Supergirl. Hello? I'm like superior to most of the girls on here!

Turning away from him so he couldn't see the look of confusion and rage on her face, Kara adminstered the meds to herself before turning back to Brainy. She stalked over to him, and folded her arms, stopping right next to him. "Okay, what do you need?" Besides a tight slap across the face? I mean, seriously. Kryptonite poisoning?

"Even if you were at full strength, a dracon beam could harm you and cause a great deal of pain. Now that you've been exposed to kryptonite without having access to yellow sunlight to restore your energy stores, it could possibly kill you."

He stops to makes another quick adjustment to Sam's treatment.

"After I was imbued with my shield powers, the shield generator in my belt was made redundant, but I kept it, lest I was ever depowered or otherwise had need for a remote shield," he says, taking off his belt, and removing some of the more vital equipment pouches. "Robin, unfortunately, has a device that can short the shield out, just as it briefly shorted out my forcefield powers, but at the very least, it can provide you additional protection from dracon beam fire, especially if you run into one of the other Controllers."

He reaches around her waist and clasps the belt on.

"Hit the button here, on the side, and it will provide you a basic personal forcefield. The other controls to manipulate the forcefield are too complex for anyone other than myself to use, I'm afraid. I configured them that way on purpose."

Quickly, he turns back to Sam's treatment, taking over again.

"Exercise caution."

Aww, he cares about you, Kara...

"I'd prefer such delicate equipment remain intact."

...Okay, so maybe he just cares about the belt. ~~Or he just can't admit he cares about you.~~

Edited 2009-02-23 21:59 (UTC)

"I'll go for Robin first, then," Kara said. "I owe him a couple of punches anyway, for what he's done." She's blushing bright red at that thing that Brainy did with his belt around her waist. She looked down, watching how it criss-crossed with the bright yellow belt she already wore. She caught herself smiling a little bit. "I'm going to pretend that by delicate equipment you meant me," Kara said, coyly. She looked back down at Sam and back at Brainy. "You need to take care too, Brainy."

And she turned to go.

He continues working on Sam, making minute adjustments to keep his neurochemistry stable.

When he's fairly certain she's gone, he mutters,

It's a compliment. That's why he doesn't say it while she's there. (But he's not accounting for super-hearing).

The Yeerk would've likely chosen that moment to chime up with something rude to all that, but it's too busy screaming.

Mia wakes up with a groan. "Oh that totally sucked... 'm gonna strangle him..."

"I'm afraid you'll do no such thing," says Brainy, still attending to Sam, goggles atop his head as he plinks away at the holoscreen, making adjustments. "For the moment, you're restrained, until I'm sure you're fighting fit again. Also, depending on whether or not you're referring to who I think you're referring to, strangulation is no longer an option."

Wait a second, Mia, hadn't this guy been working with Tim? Poisoning the Kryptonians with kryptonite?

There's Kon, unconscious, strapped to the bed next to Speedy, although he looks a little better.

Edited 2009-02-24 23:29 (UTC)

Mia looks around. She's in the med bay. Better than being dead, but she's not big on the whole strapped to a table thing. Plus, she's seen more than enough of doctor's offices, thank you.

She struggles against the restraints, testing them for now.

"I'm going to strangle the goddamn Blue Beetle for just tasing me when he could have just knocked out the whole room and sorted it out from there..."

"As I already noted, you'll do no such thing," Brainy comments. "He paid for his mistake with his life."

Mia stops, then gives him a flat look. "Oh.. this is the part where you try to break my spirit to get me to talk?" She snorted. "Fat chance."

"Ah, you still believe I'm on the opposite side. I'm not. I am infested with one of the Yeerks, but due to my vast intellect and multiple simultaneous thought processes, I've kept possession of my own body, and have merely been faking infestation. I wasn't poisoning Kon and Kara with kryptonite--"

He takes out the green light with one hand, while still tapping at the screen with the the other, and blinks it on, then pockets it again.

"--I used a green light to make it appear that way, pocketed the kryptonite in its case, and gave them medical intervention. That's why Superboy is still alive."

And Kon is on the bed next to her, the heart monitor and scans beeping away, showing stronger vital signs that kept getting stronger. Without sunlight for a recharge he's pretty much sleeping it off. He should wake up any moment.

"That's why Kara isn't here right now--she was in good enough condition to go back to assist in the apprehension of Robin."

He swallows thickly. "And that's why I'm afraid what I'm saying about Blue Beetle still stands. I was stunned as well--when I awoke, I scanned him and there were no vital signs. It appears Robin's Yeerk killed him with a dracon beam."

Edited 2009-02-25 18:14 (UTC)

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