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 say that there was nothing inherently wrong with allowing emotional freedom," Brainiac 5 says reluctantly. "Superman and the Legion have been more the helpful in demonstrating that, and the fact that I chose to create my own emotions..." He stops and glances away, not wanting to admit that he's perhaps more than a little jealous of his counterpart having natural emotions as well.

"Why would X-ray vision affect me?" he asks instead. His eyes flicker to the other Brainy, but he doesn't say anything about the mistake in the project. Not with a Kryptonian watching him with glowing red eyes. Instead he moves away to look around the laboratory further, eventually pausing in front of a small holoboard covered in lines of complex equations.

"Hmm... Interesting, but..." And he suddenly erases half of it.

Kara watches the two Brainys. Part of her wants to ask B5 what he's doing, but realizing that he's probably as smart as ~~her~~ Brainy, she decides not to. "Just curious. Sometimes it has this effect on machines and stuff." She squeezes ~~her~~ Brainy's shoulder encouragingly, wanting to comfort him. She knows its not easy having another one of him here. She wonders if this is what Power Girl had gone through.

And if that was the case...

Oh man.

That put B5 in her shoes.

Dammit.

... whut.

"What--what--what did you--you mechanized moron! I've been working on that for days!"

"Days?" Brainy asks, looking genuinely surprised. "But if you simply alter the equation like this..."

Several numbers are added to the remains of the equation.

"...factor in a margin for error here..."

The equation begins to grow a little, but not in the same sprawling way of the original.

"...and adjust this... Then it becomes much simpler."

He steps back from the result with a pleased look on his face. "Don't you agree?"

Blink.

Blink blink blink.

Blink.

She turns to look at ~~her~~ Brainy, waiting to see what his reaction is...and waiting to see if she needs to stop him from going all beasty style on B5.

"That isn't--"

You can see his eyes darting as he follows along, making the calculations in his head.

"You can't just--"

More calculating.

Damn. Damn damn damn damn damn!

"..."

Maaaaan.

"Ah."

Okay, so maybe now the pleased look is edging towards smug again. Brainy's more than a little aware that he's just successfully one-upped his clearly inferior counterpart twice in the one laboratory.

"Is there anything else you wanted me to check over for you?" He's trying to make it sound purely helpful, but it's failing a tiny bit.

"No!" He continues on, with a calmer voice, "I mean, no. Most of my work is finished. And...I would have thought of that, if I'd had time to focus, by the way."

Now he's surreptitiously...hiding things. Half-finished plans and mini-projects, like an insecure artist hiding his half-finished work so a visiting artistic rival couldn't judge it before it was done.

"Perhaps you should start telling me about your versions of the Legion and Colu, so we can understand the divergences."

"Of course you would," he agrees more than a little condescendingly. "But seeing I'm here now, it would be beneficial for us to work together on some things, don't you agree?" Plus it's not like he's got any projects to hide from the other. ~~Yet.~~

"Very well." And if any of his Legion had been here, they would have recognised how Brainy stepped back slightly and straightened up as being his 'lecture mode' position.

"My dimension's Colu is a technologically based society. Normal Coluans look much different from myself," and here he presses a point on his arm, projecting a small holographic display of Coluans and his planet, "and are all connected via a Hive Mind. However, I've separated myself from my people and the Hive Mind, so I'm considered... unusual."

"Were your Coluans always a technological race or did they convert from organic to inorganic forms?"

The hologram disappears. "Coluans were originally an organic species, yes. However, as part of our natural development, we each undergo a process of having a new, mostly cybernetic form created into which our mental patterns are uploaded."

Brainy's face twitched with thinly-veiled disgust.

"That sounds positively barbaric."

It just sounds gross. Body horror kinda thing. He may be the father of sentient machine life, but he'd never want anymore tech grafted to him than he already has.

Edited 2009-04-28 09:09 (UTC)

His eyes narrow at that. While he might not agree with much of what his people do, it's hardly barbaric in his view.

"Maybe in your backwards version of Colu," he shoots back. "But it's a perfectly acceptable practice and one that has clearly benefited us, if our superior abilities are any indication."

He directs a pointed look at the equation he'd just finished.

"It may be acceptable in your culture, but I still find it barbaric to force a sentient being to undergo any dramatic change in physical form while they're still developing, rather than letting them choose such a change when they've reached full maturity. And for your information--"

Oh man, it's on. It's--

"--my version of Colu is backwards."

It's fighty time, he's gonna...

Wait, he's gonna agree?

"They're technologically stagnant and have been so for a thousand years, they eschew the applied sciences in favor of pure theory--theory that they never do anything with unless they've solicited a hundred safety reviews first. They're scientifically timid, terrified and hateful of anything more intelligent than themselves, and morally bankrupt, if their attempts to destroy other civilizations rather than allow themselves to be outstripped in intellect by other forms of life are any indication."

He shoots his counterpart a daring look.

"It seems to me that you grew up in a more advanced society with physical augmentations to supplement your natural capabilities. Shortcuts. I grew up on a fusty, stagnant rock overburdened with pompous imbecilic apes that were in love with bureaucracy, terrified of my capabilities, and tried to fetter my potential at every turn. I think it's fair to say that I've done very well for myself, considering, and therefore, I would appreciate it if you ceased with the unwarranted--and quite frankly unearned--condescension."

Edited 2009-04-28 09:37 (UTC)

Brainiac 5 falls silent for a moment because he doesn't quite know what to say. Because... he agrees with his counterpart. He would have preferred being given a choice to become as he was, rather than trying to reverse some of the changes, to mimic what he couldn't be, couldn't feel normally. But his pride won't let him admit that to the other Brainiac 5, who doesn't have to rely on a highly complicated series of programs to feel emotions.

The gap between them feels even wider the more he hears about this other Colu. He can't begin to imagine what that life would have been like. While his own experiences were less than... enjoyable, the other Brainiac 5 was also correct in that he hadn't been limited either.

"I see," he says eventually. "I suppose I should... apologise for my behaviour." It's more formal than he might have said to anyone else, but it's an effort to get the words out at all. "I'll try to keep our differences in mind in the future."

Is it hot in here? "Great. So now that we're done with comparing the sizes of our big, thick, nerdy brains, let's move on," she says, looking between the two of them. She looks at B5. "And I'm sorry if I've been a bit of a jerk to you. You're new and the ship trusts you and my first reaction shouldn't have been to attack you." She's apologizing. That doesn't mean she'll be all buddy-buddy with the guy.

"And I--I apologize for my instinctual reaction being attack, as well," Brainy says, "I had intended to simply restrain you long enough to answer my queries. After facing the first Brainiac and...and the one before me, I am perhaps overly cautious concerning those that seem to be from the family line. To date, in my universe, barring Brainiac 2--who is, at the very least, ruthless, if not entirely immoral--I am the only Brainiac that hasn't been a supervillain or otherwise deluded and insane."

There is a subtle gesture of his hand, as if to say 'carrying on...'

"In my universe, Coluans are still entirely organic--barring artificial organ replacement, of course, though it's rarely needed with cloned organs. They are, as I've said, rather stagnant, due to an incident with the original Brainiac that occurred in the past."

One he's responsible for, actually, but he leaves that part out.

"Such an incident occurred shortly after Colu was freed from the reign of the Computer Tyrants, inorganic lifeforms that controlled all aspects of Coluan life. They were aided and abetted by the original Brainiac, whose intelligence was upgraded to a level 12 intelligence in reward. His cloned son Vril Dox II, the ruthless Brainiac I spoke of, was his assistant and from what I've gathered in my research of the family and experience with it during my stay in the past, treated something like a slave. Eventually he turned against his father and helped free Colu from the Computer Tyrants, though at a great loss of innocent life. I am descended from his line."

He goes on, "Because of this, and the later incident with Brainiac, Coluans are both highly prejudiced against technological lifeforms, and technologically stagnant. Though our technology is vastly more advanced than that of many other worlds, there is no growth, and they regard things that advance past those constraints...aberrant in nature."

Edited 2009-04-29 03:19 (UTC)

"It's understandable," he answers. "In fact my universe has similar... issues with my family line. Though I must admit that I'm not entirely familiar with my entire family history, so I can't reveal much there. But let's just say that if our situations had been reversed, I would have most likely attempted the same thing."

Particularly considering his last encounter with his ancestor, but he'd rather not mention that here. Instead he tilts his head slightly and asks a different question.

"What about your version of the Legion of Super Heroes?"

"My Legion was founded by Livewire, Comic Boy, and Saturn Girl when they all happened to be on board a shuttle with entrepreneur R.J. Brande. They saved his life from an attempted assassination, and seeing them work together despite differences between their peoples made him devise the concept of the Legion. He provided the original funding and proposed the idea to them and then to the UP government."

He goes on, "Of course, they immediately ran roughshod over his and the Founders' initial concept of the Legion and forced a draft into place of all UP planets. I was Colu's representative, though the prospect of their well-furnished lab lured me in, initially."

He adds, honestly, "...That and the prospect of imprisonment for draft-dodging were enough to make me join. Eventually, we managed to get the draft abolished and maintained autonomy. We're a recognized power in the UP government, although certainly independent from it, called in to assist for issues beyond the Science Police's expertise, dedicated to the preservation of peaceful sentient life."

He adds, with certainty, "I would imagine the function of your own Legion is probably similar, if not identical--we have encountered alternate Legions during crises in the past, and most, despite differences, seemed to be dedicated to the same cause."

Edited 2009-04-29 05:40 (UTC)

He raises an eyebrow. "Yes, very similar. But without the draft part. While the Legion and the UP government rarely see eye-to-eye, we've never had quite that much of a problem with them.

"Codenames appear to be different as well. Our Legion was founded by Lightning Lad, Cosmic Boy, and Saturn Girl. And as for myself, I ended up joining the Legion after I..." He glances away for a moment. "left... Colu. I've been a member of the Legion for several years now."

He directs his attention to Kara now. "Actually, I'm curious about your origins as well. I'd always thought that Superman was the only survivor from Krypton."

My father sent me to Earth to kill Kal-El.

"Well, my parents sent me to Earth after Kal-El to take care of him. He was only a baby and I was the age I am now. But, Krypton exploded, and I got stuck in a chunk of the planet and just orbited around until I landed on Earth like thirty-some years later..." She smiles uncomfortably. "No one except Kal and Diana and a couple of others believed I was me though. Except for the bad guys. Darkseid and Luthor both wanted their hands on me."

"It's entirely possible your version of Superman simply never had a cousin, or she died during Krypton's destruction. You also met Kon-El, who is indeed Superman's clone. Well, perhaps I should be more accurate--he's his half-clone. Half of his DNA comes from Superman, the rest was grafted human DNA to stabilize it. He was an honorary member of the Legion for a time, and when he was trapped in the future, he was made an active member."

"I suppose that's understandable, seeing as it was widely believed that Clark was the only survivor of Krypton." He seems a little relieved though, he was worried there might be some difficult questions about Kandor.

Clones are an easier topic however. "Yes, one other Legionnaire, Kell-El, is also a clone of Superman, though he comes from the 41st century. However his DNA was augmented to also include immunity to kryptonite, giving him a slightly different set of abilities. Visually, he's very similar to Kon-El." He smiles suddenly. "He does spend more time scowling though."

"Great," Kara says, "they made a Super-Bat."

Brainy actually laughs. He has met Batman, after all, when in the past.

"Superboy is... rambunctious. Unpredictable. But he's been invaluable, at times. Kara here is much the same. I never had the chance to work with her before our stay on the ship, but she was of tremendous benefit to the crew during the Yeerk crisis."

He carefully avoids looking at her as he says that.

"There are actually quite a few heroes from our world, or others that are similar, like your own. Most of them are rather young, which is an odd trend. Blue Beetle is one of them, then there's Terry McGinnis, who seems to be some incarnation of Batman who was just as invaluable during the previously mentioned crisis, as well as Robin, one of Superboy's team-mates from the 31st century, is also a very effective hero. The Legion's worked with him and the other Titans, and he was a great assistance in the past when we were trying to stop C.O.M.P.U.--er, trying to deal with a conflict then."

Edited 2009-04-29 07:35 (UTC)

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