trans_9 | Poking around the ship...

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Poking around the ship...

Brainiac 5 was still uncertain what exactly was going on here (though rest assured that he intended to find out sooner rather than later), as what he had learned so far hadn't been particularly enlightening. But what he did know was that, according to his devices, there were two other Legionnaires somewhere close by. Obviously the most logical step now was to meet up with them and try to organise some sort of plan of action. Hopefully they would turn out to be someone competent and useful, such as Superman and Kell-El, though considering his circumstances so far, he wasn't terribly optimistic about that.

Following the signal brought him into a large hall, obviously designed for eating judging from the number of tables and chairs set around the place. As he entered, he passed by what appeared to be a large eye set into the wall. It must have initiated some kind of scan, as next a tray with some sort of substance he supposed was food was deposited nearby. Though he wasn't entirely hungry - his body was much more efficient at storing energy than those of non-Coluans - he took it anyway, deciding that he may require the extra energy sooner rather than later.

Now if only he could find the signal he'd been following...

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"I didn't want genetic samples," Brainiac grouses. "I wanted scans, for perfectly legitimate scientific and medical purposes."

Querl is now slowly circling the other Brainy, still looking ponderous, and you can almost see it in his eyes that he's trying to work out how he works and filling in the details backwards. Coluan technology, certainly, but in more in the vein of the original Brainiac's designs--but then they were bastardized from normal Coluan tech...

"This Superman is not the one you know. Furthermore, he's from a point in the timestream that was before he met even my Legion. In our universe, Superman only met the Legion when we were trapped back in the 20th century. He never served with the Legion. Superboy did when he was trapped for a time in the future after Darkseid's machinations," he says, indicating the erstwhile clone.

Though Superman had actually been there very briefly during the business with Darkseid, but they mindwiped him (with his permission) and sent him back to when he'd been taken. Now is not the best time to mention it.

"It's OK...I'm getting used to going with the flow a bit in terms of who knows what." Superman said. "My last memory is dying after defeating Doomsday."

Something occurs to him in this instant. "Not to be off-topic...but does this ship have a barber?"

Superboy, who the other Brainiac might note looks an awful lot like Superman, brick-chin included (and barring a few facial features that seem to come from...somewhere else) holds up his hand, displaying his flight ring.

"I've got the flight-bling and everything," he shows off to Brainy.

In answer to Kal, "Not that I've seen."

He points to his head as example, which is indeed a little shaggy. If he hadn't been still close to a crew cut from shaving his head during the brain-washing business when he'd been grabbed, it'd be even longer.

He's aware of the organic Brainy's attention, and it prompts him to show off a little. His arm is still missing from below the elbow and he glances at it, concentrating as the cybernetic/nanotech mix quickly repairs itself, working from the skeleton up until his arm is perfectly whole and functional again. He flexes his fingers once, then shoots a smug look at the ~~inferior~~ organic Brainy.

The effect is ruined a little when he shoots a surprised look at Superboy though. Now that he's paying more attention, there are a lot of similarities, not only to Superman, but also to Kell-El. "Another clone?" His gaze flicks to Supergirl in a moment. "And you as well?"

From how they act and what he's heard, they all clearly have more in common with each other than the people he knows. "So you're all from the same dimension?" he asks curiously. "Interesting... It raises the question as to why I was brought here as well, among other questions. Like how you came to be trapped in the 20th century. But perhaps I'm thinking about the problem in terms of my own dimension."

There's a pause and the smug look is back, directed at his counterpart. "After all, it wouldn't have taken me more than a few weeks at most to create a suitable time machine, but I suppose it would have taken you longer."

And it looks like one way they don't differ is their egos.

"Okay," Kara said, looking between the Brainys, Kon, and Kal. She's clearly annoyed. "Why does no one in any future know about my existence?" she asked. "I'm not a clone, FYI. I'm Kara Zor-El of Krypton, cousin to Kal-El of Krypton. I'm the real Kryptonian deal." Yes, she's a little testy about that. "And what do you mean by another clone?"

"I've told you before, Kara, very few historical records survived for a thousand years. The history best known to the Legion--at least in our universe--is that which concerns Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, and the legendary Justice League."

As for his alternate, the pile of scraps...

"As for the Legion's stay in the 20th century, it did indeed take longer than several weeks for me to devise a way for the team to return us home. Rather than building a simple time machine, I invented C.O.M.P.U.T.O, a Cybercerebral Overlapping Multi-Processor Universal Transceiver Operator--computer capable of creating a portal to the future. It was so advanced it spurred on the advent of sentient machine life over the millennium, leading to machines eventually evolving and being recognized as sentient beings by the United Planets by our own time."

He pauses. "So, in a sense, I was waylaid by inventing the progenitor of a species much like your own." He sniffs, "It wasn't difficult. Merely time consuming."

Edited 2009-04-24 06:31 (UTC)

Kon looks between the two worriedly, then looks to Kara and Kal.

"They are never gonna stop, are they."

"I kind of hope not," Kara whispers in Kon's ear. "That was hot on Brainy's part."

That statement = good-natured eyeroll + amused smirk.

Super hearing ahoy. "Kara!" Supes has that dad frown on his face.

"A Kryptonian?" He turns around and looks at her intently. "But Superman was the only one to survive Krypton's destruction..." Not including the city of Kandor, but he's not wanting to bring that up right now. It's simpler to answer the other question. "In my dimension there was another clone of Superman from the 41st century. He took on the name Kell-El and joined the Legion for a time."

And that would be his inferior counterpart trying to prove his worth again.

"C.O.M.P.U.T.O.? I invented that when I first joined the Legion, along with the time bubble technology. It was really more of a side project, however, as I'd already created many other pieces of technology and upgraded most of the facility. But I can understand why you'd be so proud of that achievement." His smile is quick and pure condescension. "After all, considering my substantially advanced mental and physical nature, it's unsurprising I would find those achievements much simpler than you."

Did someone order a side of robo-burn?

"Suuuuper-hearing, Kara," Kon reminds his cousin, leaving her to Kal, and he turns to the Brainies just as he sees the very incensed Brainy from their world start to open his mouth to start the next stage of the intellectual pissing contest.

He slings an arm around each of their shoulders.

"Girls, girls--you're both pretty."

Brainy frowns. (And he's too busy glowering at the other Brainy and then Kon to have noticed Kara's whispering).

"Unhand me, you oaf."

It's not said entirely rudely, but he's still got that grimace of malcontent, as he carefully lifts Kon's hand off his shoulder and then wipes his own hand on his plant-suit afterwards.

"As I was about to say, my C.O.M.P.U.T.O is likely far more advanced, given the level of his sentience--and far more complex. It may have taken me more time to create him, and more time to help him move further along in his evolution as a sentient being, but I sincerely doubt the final incarnation of your version was remotely similar if you simply call yours a 'side project.' Though he had a rough start, in the end, he was my greatest creation, and I could likely, never, in the rest of my lifetime, create something of greater value."

He goes on, "Not that a machine like yourself would understand the significance of creating sentient life."

Get the picture, you robotey robotic robot?

Edited 2009-04-25 04:25 (UTC)

Kara smiles uncomfortably at Kal, and looks at the Brainy bot. "Different universes, different things? I didn't land on Earth until like thirty years after Kal did, though." And beyond that? She's quiet. She might let something else embarassing slip.

While he's not exactly much happier with a complete stranger draping an arm around his shoulders, he doesn't get quite as melodramatic about it as certain others do. He's had to deal with Lightning Lad and others doing similar things before, so he allows the contact to last for precisely 7.32 seconds (previous experimentation had shown this to be an adequate length of time to allow the other person to believe they'd 'had a moment', as the Legion put it, and then they were happy to leave him alone) before pulling away.

Privately he's fascinated with the description of this other C.O.M.P.U.T.O., but he won't admit that to the other Brainy and just files that information away for later.

"Kara has a point," he says instead, indicating Supergirl. "Obviously our universes are much different from each other, with different achievements being made in each. Arguing about it constantly won't serve much of a purpose, particularly not here."

When in doubt, make yourself look like the better ~~robot~~ person by trying to be the (belated) voice of reason!

"Sounds like a plan." Superman said. "Besides, all this means is we have *TWO* 12th level intellects on the ship. That's a good thing for figuring out how to get out of this, right?"

Kara grins. "With their powers combined, they have a 24th level intellect." She looks at them. "You know, if they don't have the oil-water thing going on." ~~And then...ooh...Brainy vs Robo-Brainy in a tub of oil...Brainy covered in oil....oooh.~~

"Kal's right. I never thought I'd say it, but this is a situation where having two Brainiacs might actually be handy," Kon says.

Brainiac 5 wants to grouse more, he wants to prove unequivocally that he's the smarter one, he wants to point out that He started it, and He's one to talk after Superman had already pointed out that they shouldn't fight and He kept on being annoying...

But in the face of relentless Super-optimism--from all three of the Kryptonians--he's relatively defenseless. All he can do is quietly be annoyed, continue frowning, and say to his counterpart:

"I suppose I should show you the Lab then."

Edited 2009-04-28 01:49 (UTC)

"I don't think it quite works like that," he says to Kara, but it's hard not to smile a tiny bit at the enthusiasm from the three Kryptonians. They might not be like the Superman and Kell-El that he knows, but Clark is still Clark and Kon reminds him of Kell, and he feels a little less out of place.

Unfortunately he doesn't foresee the other Brainiac 5 being particularly helpful in that respect. He shoots a slightly smug look at the other Brainy. "Yes you should," he agrees. "I'm interested in see what exactly you've managed to accomplish so far." The words 'if anything' remained unspoken, but the meaning was clear despite how polite the tone might have been.

Hmmmm. Okay, so Kon doesn't want to know the details, like, ever, and yeah he's a little protective of Kara, but all the same, he doesn't want to be cramping in on her game or anything. Much as that protective instinct is flaring, he decides to ignore that and let her have her space.

He'd hope that she'd give him space when trying to score with twins, after all.

"Hey, Kal, I sort of have an idea for haircuts, for me and you. Why don't we leave the nerds to nerd it up and hit the Sensorium? If it can whip up whatever we imagine, maybe we can imagine up a barber..."

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Poking around the ship...

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