Part 1 - The Mirror Turned

[meat_mooks]

There was no sound in the hangar, where the signal could be traced to something transmitting it that was hidden among the ships. The omnicom itself that was in Brenda's possession was transmitting, but there was something else in the hangar that had been amplifying the signal and carrying it along through the shielded depths of the ship back when the omnicom had been in the lab and wirelessly hacked by the strange mental array attached to Brainy's brain, and that was what they were tracing the signal to rather than the omnicom itself, months of hard work finally letting them crack the code.

There were no sounds of running or of someone being chased. That was possibly alarming. Silence, when someone had been running for their lives, was a bad thing.

[ooc: Closed to: the Brainies, Danny Phantom, Brenda, Red Robin, Zuko, Shoutaro, Jeka, and Punchy. Cole-player, I'll give you your cue to hop in and witness the trap going off by email and give you a setup when it's time.]

Comments

[hatngartersnake]

Jeka hung in her bonds silently, watching Brainy -- poor, dear Brainy -- as he scanned her like she was nothing but what he'd called her. A subject.

She's been in this situation before: bound physically and mentally, illegally, under threat of death or worse. But last time, she'd known that the Legion would come looking for her. That Brainy would come looking for her.

"I'm sorry, Brainy," she said quietly. "I'm sorry we didn't find you sooner."

[shes_intense]

"It's not your fault Jeka.""

That's Brenda, moving sluggishly to stand at Brainy's side, but her eyes are downcast. She still feels dizzy but hates the vulnerability of just laying still and reeling.

"What do you need?" She asks Brainy, voice tired and resigned.

[level12jerkass]

"We do have you right where we want you. Why do you sound surprised at all? You knew you were facing Brainiacs," said a voice off to the side, as sinuous and cold-blooded as a snake. "Then again, it's almost unsatisfying how easy it was to play to your sympathies. Empathy is a weakness that's disappointingly predictable."

Brainiac 4 walked into the room and stood by her son. Her clothing was simple, a skintight suit in drab grey and purple. The expression on her face was, if at all possible, more cold and emotionless as Brainy's, though there was just the smallest hint of satisfaction in her eyes as she watched her son work, knowing what he was preparing to do.

"Fortunately, it's a weakness my son has divested himself of." There was the smallest of smiles. "With my help, of course."

[googledox]

"Brenda, prep my surgical equipment and the medical scanners."

That probably was not a good sign.

[ooc: Your round, guys!]

[nunpunching]

Punchy's got a really snarky comment for Brainiac, and then Brainiac Four walks in with those legs up to here and Punchy's already-meager common sense completely shuts off.

So he wolf-whistles at Brainiac Four, then, to Brainy 5, says, "daaaayumn, son, you didn't tell me you got a MILF in this joint!"

There is no way this could backfire.

[thisclinchesit]

Punchy, Shoutarou is going to pray that your commentary is part of something bigger and clever like what you did on the comms before. Really.

There's a scoff, and just the slightest bit of a smirk on his face as he peers through his bangs at the Braniacs. "I'd call it a boon. It's certainly given us the break we needed to get to the bottom of all this." Unwavering confidence can do one of two things - unsettle the bad guys enough to make them screw up, or make them focus on him long enough to hopefully give the others a chance to do something.

He just hopes his usual good luck holds out in this situation.

[prodigalfirelord]

"Are you crazy?"

Zuko really ought to have the restraint to ignore Punchy but . . . Punchy.

"Brainy. You know this isn't right. You know this isn't you. Let us go before you do something you'll regret."

[hatngartersnake]

Whatever Jeka had been about to say or do was momentarily lost as she choked on her own spit. She's not completely certain what a "milf" is, but she can hazard a guess from the context. She can only hope that Brainiac 4's lack of empathy extends to not caring particularly about what a sentient says about her in her presence.

Her eyes flicker between Brainy and his mother as she quietly tests her bonds in the hope that Brainy had left her an opening -- whatever his mother had done to him, surely she couldn't have crushed out his compassion. Of course, Brainy's mother knew that she was a Legionnaire, so it was possible that she'd watched him restrain her very closely. She switches tactics, glaring at Brainiac 4.

"More people than us saw the posts on the omnicom system," she snarls. "Are you sure you got everyone? You're not special, you sprocking squaj, you can get taken down by a knock upside the head just as easily as anyone else!"

Hopefully, Brainy left the weakness in someone else's restraints, and they can find it while Jeka's trying to keep Brainiac 4's attention.

[shes_intense]

Brenda moves away to the cupboards and starts assembling a standard compliment of surgical tools, though she cringes midway through the task hearing Punchy pipe up about Brainiac 4.

She comes back to Brainy's side and sets the tools on his workstation, sighing as she slides between Zuko and Jeka's bodies to power up the scanners she was asked for.

"Don't waste your breath trying to talk him around, guys. Believe me, I've tried it."

She'll probably get some kind of reprimand for trying to give the captives advice but screw it. It was just one more reprimand in thousands by now and voicing negative thoughts about B4 was very worth it...

"And trust me Punchy, you can't possibly be masochistic enough to want to tap that."

[level12jerkass]

Brainiac 4 didn't actually seem horribly incensed over what Punchy said. She was, after all, a sociopath and while anger came to her naturally, shame and embarrassment didn't. That said, she didn't suffer fools lightly.

"Kill the mouthy one first," Brainiac 4 said to her son calmly. "Painfully. But then, you're going to kill them all painfully. Be sure to record it, won't you?"

[googledox]

"Naturally. You know I prefer to have records of my work."

[level12jerkass]

"That's my boy."

Reaching out, she lifted his chin, delicately, and then appeared to grip it just a little too tightly, her nails digging in, leaving a scratch that started to ooze green blood just lightly.

When he didn't react to the pain, she looked even more pleased.

"Look at how I've broken you, at what you've become. I'm so proud. It's my best work, I think."

[googledox]

"The Coluan psyche is fragile, mother," Brainiac 5 said, not even bothering to attend to the cut that was now on his face. Unless it dripped, it was irrelevant. "While it was a significant accomplishment, certainly, it was also an inevitability. Now, may I get to work? You're distracting me."

[level12jerkass]

"Of course. I'm also distracting myself. I have to attend to my other plans in the meantime--I'm almost through Stacy's defenses. Make sure you're finished with your toys in time for the grand unveiling, my dear."

With that ominous proclamation, she turned on her heel and walked out.

[googledox]

"I don't want the lab crowded. Helper-bots, leave these two with me, put the others in holding."

Some of the robots that were performing minor tasks around the lab started to move, pushing three of the hovering containment units with the captives into another area. Punchy and Jeka were to stay with him and Brenda in the lab. Shoutarou, Zuko, and Red Robin were going to be put aside for now.

"Brenda, hand me my omnitool. It's time to get to work."

The goggles he flipped over his eyes were meant to protect from blood spatter.

[ooc: New part!]