Status: Collecting Data [Katie]

[Katie Hearth]

“That’s right and I-D-K, if they’re smart enough, they get bumped a grade or two. It depends on them and whether or not they want to deal with the older peeps,” she shrugged, “Seniors can be brutal. Like, no joke, yesterday Todd ended up in the trashcan when he bumped into John freaken Cena- at least that’s what my friend and I call him, because he’s pretty monstrous but he has these tiny little arms” Katie demonstrated by folding her arms like a T-rex, “and that only happened because Todd wears these huge bottle cap glasses. He’s not even smart! But he looks like a tot’ nerd and-” Katie paused realizing she was going off on a tangent. He probably didn’t know what the hell she was talking about.

“This is the part where you say ’cool story, bro,’ she suggested, rather sheepishly, it’s how you get people to shut up," she elaborated.

Katie leaned on the pillar and crossed her arms, her head pointed towards the direction of the banner. He was really out of touch with this century. I mean, who didn’t know about football? Then again, he was from some planet with green metal. What could she expect. The question, nonetheless, made her smile. “Football is this sport where people have to carry, throw, or kick this ball towards the opposite end of the football field they’re playing on. My brother’s in the varsity team,” she said enthusiastically, “and they’re going to be playing soon. It’s a big deal in school. Personally, I’m not really into it myself but hey, there’s a lot of school spirit,” Katie shrugged, “and it can get pretty exciting if you’re into people getting tackled.”

“It’s- wow-,” she scratched her red hair. 5.0? Seriously? She shook her head, “how ’bout I just call you Brain, or Brainy? Or green bean. I kind of like it and it suits you quite well.” As the conversation continued on, every piece of information so interesting and bizarre, she honestly felt overwhelmed by his own knowledge that he wielded. It wasn’t such a bad thing. She had nothing against smarties, and besides, Katie figured she could put that to some good use. Exploiting aliens, so totally not beneath her. What followed next however nearly had her eyes bulging from their socket. It was fine and dandy that he was well versed in languages- he definitely looked smart with all that metal- but a galactic hero? Katie placed her hands on her hips and she leaned forward, eyes squinted in disbelief. The obscuration of his everything did not help her believe him.

“No way! You look so,”- Katie stopped herself, thought it over, concluded that her next statement was little more than an observation, and spat it right out, “you look so--never mind, it doesn‘t matter.” She did a little wave of her hand as if to expel her earlier thoughts. Maybe he was delusional. Intergalactic hero? No way. Unless…it was? No. No way.

“Primitive tech, hm,” Katie snapped her fingers and looked at him seriously, “I think I have your solution!”

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[Brainiac 5]

…It wasn’t like English at all. It was like a language that sounded like English, but not quite, just enough to trick someone who was listening to it into thinking that it was said language. IDK? What did that stand for? Peeps? Tot’? Nerd? They were obviously slang words, but the copious amounts of them made Brainy feel, well, kind of confused. Of course, he could understand what she was saying, comprehend that there was a bully that picked on a weaker boy, but all of those little words, scattered throughout? …Not so much.

He blinked, surprised, and repeated the phrase dutifully. “Cool story, bro,” the Coluan replied, playing back Katie’s voice right at her. ‘Like listening to a recording’ is how Superman put it. “I was listening, though. An accurate example of normalcy.”

Listening to the explanation, he compared it to Magnoball. …No, it was nothing alike, at least, that is what it sounded like, and that was the only form of sport that he had ever watched. “It does not sound like something that would fascinate me. I do not particularly enjoy watching people tackle each other.” Or sports in general, rather, but Cosmic Boy would kill him if he didn’t come and witness at least one game. “Is that what is being practiced on the field outside?” It made sense, of course, but he had to be sure. After all, there could be other sports here that they played.

Frowning slightly at the response, Querl shook his head. “Most call me ‘Brainy’,” he told the girl, before protesting the use of the nickname. “I do not wish to be called a vegetable, though. It is demeaning.” Very, very demeaning. Had it been one of his teammates that called him such, he would’ve threatened to do something like digitize them, but as it was, he simply settled for looking peeved.

…An emotion that only increased as he narrowed his eyes right back at Katie. She doubted his proficiency? “I suppose I do not look like much,” he replied, before he shifted his left arm into a laser cannon with a small smirk. “But you do not know much, believe me.” She had no idea what he was capable of, none at all. If he wanted to, he could think of over 293 ways to incapacitate or kill her, on the spot, before she could even scream.

Having Brainiac’s knowledge helped a great deal in such an endeavor.

However, her next statement, as well as the certainly with which she said it, had his irritation bleeding away, his purple eyes widening as he unconsciously leaned forward slightly. “Yes?” he questioned, trying to refrain from sounding too eager. “What exactly do you have in mind?” He had been doubtful that this girl could assist him in such a way, but if she could… This would prove most profitable, indeed.

He knew it was always best to trust one’s instincts.

[Katie Hearth]

“Please, don’t do that.” Katie hugged herself and rubbed away the gooseflesh that crawled on both her arms, “it’s giving me the creeps!” It was eerie hearing her voice being echoed precisely as it was from someone else’s body. Suddenly she didn’t feel the need to produce that phrase any time so- nor ever. It was simply disturbing. The boy on the other hand seemed nonplus by his action. She couldn’t blame him, Katie reminded herself that he wasn’t accustomed to her world and perhaps, this was just one of those things common among his people- his people! It certainly brought her into perspective. Up to that point, they had merely talked and nothing that he said had grounded her quite the way his action did. Okay, robot, dully noted. From another world. Check.

“Yeah,” she nodded her head, “right now they’re practicing for the game this upcoming week,” she shrugged, “I guess Brainy it is then.”

“WHOW!,” The red head took a step back only to bump against the wall she had been leaning on. She wasn’t sure when it happened, all she could tell was that one second his hand was there, all five digits and the next it, ’transformed’ for a lack of better words, into a canon. One simple shift of the hand. If her eyes wasn’t proof enough of her surprise (they were wide and staring baffled at Brainy), then it was the agape mouth that she soon closed, and then tried to open in order to let something out. That was unsuccessful. She eventually mustered up another ’whooow’. This one a little more hushed. There was a moment of silence where she seemed to be taking everything in and then-.

“I can’t believe you just did that!”

It almost looked like it hurt. If it did, Brainy did not brandish any grimace or looked, if ever a robot could, in pain. It was hard for her to simply jump back on her earlier train of thought, not when Optimus Prime pulled a fast one like that. The hand just disappeared and reappeared as a firearm! The. Hand. Became. A. Firearm. She paced frantically in front of him in deep thought and that’s when she started talking, more to herself than the person in front of her, “and of course, I would be the only one to witness this! This always happens to me, and every time I tell someone, guess what?” She shoot him a look. Rhetorical question.

“They don’t believe me! They never do. I bet that camera doesn’t even work!” Katie pointed an accusing hand towards the security camera strapped closest to them. It was propped so that it was facing each hallways.

“Ugh! Whatevs.”

She turned to him, now curious, now a little baffled. Imagine what he could do with the rest of his body! He had asked her a question -what was it again?- certainly it couldn’t top a canon hand. “What else can you do? Can you shoot laser beams! Fly? See through walls?”

[Brainiac 5]

He looked at her, puzzled, unsure of why she was acting so… strange over it, but acquiesced. “Very well.” His teammates thought it was funny, and, in fact, when he had first joined the Legion and was very unfamiliar with the way that organic beings spoke, they often asked him to mimic back what they saw, oft-repeating things that, had he known what they meant, he would not have said.

After he shot Phantom Girl with a laser, though, they quickly stopped.

Nodding slightly at her words, for it made sense, a small, very minimal, barely noticeable smile slipped onto his face at her statement. “Good,” he replied. Lyle had given him that nickname, and while he preferred his full title, it made it simpler for others to speak. Besides, it was either that or ‘Querl’, and he did not wish for people to speak his real name. Not unless they were very close to him.

But that tiny smile quickly changed to a slight smirk as Katie proved herself to be quite awed. She should be. While he was not a very prideful person, any insults to his intelligence level and/or capabilities as a hero were not to be tolerated. He had proved his worth, many times, and judging by the expression on her face, which was greater than he normally received (then again, there were a thousand years of difference in time), he had certainly just proved himself to her, as well.

The girl’s next words, however, had him confused, as he shifted the canon back into his hand, but before he could inquire as to why she was saying such things, she continued. Ah. People not believing her. “Do you wish me to check if the… camera is still working?” Ah, that must be where the word ‘Cam’ come from! Interesting, seeing the original.

But she did not answer his question, and he frowned, dutifully answering hers. “Yes, I can shoot laser beams. No, I myself cannot fly, but I designed a ring that allows me to do so. No, I cannot see through walls.” Brainy ignored the very first question she had launched at him, however, as it truly would be a chore to list everything that he was capable of.

Not as long as if he wished to list Superman’s, but he was still far more versatile, compared to a human, than, say, Lightning Lad was.

Now was the time to repeat his question, and he raised an eyebrow at her, irritation bleeding slightly into his tone, eagerness now replaced by annoyance. “You said you had a solution, though, so I can use something other than Primitive tech? What did you have in mind?”

If she did not answer… Well, he could further demonstrate his powers, in a not so nice way. Or perhaps make his eyes glow. That could serve as an intimidation tactic.

[Katie Hearth]

Katie thought about nodding, she was enthusiastic alright, but reconsidered her options. Even if he could get it to work, would it amount to much? Nah’, perhaps not. Brainy was a high tech Swiss army knife, a very noticeable one at that. It would be a challenge to hide that fact from the public. At best, she would simply drag him along to showcase to her friends. -Look, this is Brainy 5.0 and he‘s a robot. Gia and Brittney would flip out of their minds! Satisfied with her conclusion, Katie shook her head. Brainiac 5.0 responded back. Flying, check. Laser beams, -check. Could not see through walls,- negative.

Still, she couldn’t deny that Brainiac’s abilities were impressive. How exciting it must have been being able to do all of that. The possibilities were endless. It puzzled her why someone wouldn’t be all smiles at the prospect but Brainy must have been used to it by now to have that same reaction as she did. If anything, he was more drawn by her own world. It was a mystery to her why anyone, especially some intergalactic hero, would sift through this civilization. How they must have looked barbaric in comparison. Using spoons, toasters, household items, how dull.

Brainy, however, appeared irritable by now and she had a feeling it had something to do her going off on her own tangent. Crossing her arms, she returned his look, “Control those hormones, buddy. I can’t say I have a solution for you or your problem, it’s just a thought and who knows how useful that will be.”

“So bear with me.”

Katie’s eyes fell on the floor, and then she looked back. She was starting to doubt the weight of her words, “You can't be the first extraterrestrial to have dropped by earth," she started. Out of all those superheroes reported on television, surely there were those that weren't quite from this planet, starting with Starfire and ending with Martian Manhunter.

"So I’m thinking that there could be others like you, maybe not like you exactly but aliens who could have- IDK- left their own piece of technology behind, scattered somewhere around the world?” That didn't sound very helpful. She furrowed her brow, seeping through movie plots and outlandish comic book that might help in his situation until she halfheartedly shrugged.

"Why don't you just catch a ride with some alien hero?”

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[Brainiac 5]

In truth, he was glad that the girl decided not to have him check out the cameras, and/or fix them. If possible, he did not wish to be caught on camera, simply for time paradoxes and the like, but he would not go out of his way. In fact, unless there was something that he truly felt for, he wouldn’t go out of his way to change anything. That didn’t mean he wouldn’t, say, stop a monster from attacking the city. Of course not, he had his morals. He would certainly not let any innocents die, if he could prevent it.

Even if it meant changing something.

However, his immediate response upon her next question, despite the slight disappointment that it sowed within him, was to state “I am an inorganic being. I don’t have hormones.” Well, 95% inorganic, but he did not wish to explain that to a non-combatant that he had just met. Besides, it did not affect his lack of hormones in any way.

He listened to her explanation, though, brow furrowing slightly. It was a good idea, for one that was not as ‘in the know’ as he was, but it would not… quite work, he believed. “Correct, I am not the first… ‘alien’ to come to your planet, but Colu is far away,” he told her, deciding to simply insert ‘Colu’ for the future. He would not be going back to his planet anytime soon, he believed. “Coluan technology is the best, as well… I don’t believe that any technology from other planets would be suitable.”

However, Brainy paused, amending his words. “It would be better than Earth tech, though, you are right.” Far better, most likely. For anyone that came to this planet had the technology to do so, which was more than could be said for the people living here.

Worst came to worst, he’d head to Colu, fly below the radar to steal some equipment (as Colu, sadly, did not develop much in the 1000 years that had passed, though it had been far enough ahead at this time that it didn’t matter that much), and then create his Time Bubble using that. Not the best plan, but if all else failed…

The Coluan’s first response to her second suggestion was to open his mouth to deny that option, to state how Coluans (especially direct pre- or post-Brainaic) would likely shoot them out of the sky, before he paused, reconsidered, and frowned, his hand going up underneath his lip, resting on his chin in his ‘thinking mode’. A variant of that… would not be a bad idea.

“I couldn’t ‘catch a ride’ with an alien hero,” he stated, mulling over it. “It’s not that simple. But perhaps I could attain an alliance with one…” Maybe even Superman!

The thought of being able to go seek out Superman and ally himself with him, if this wasn’t post-Brainiac, made him perk up, and he gave Katie a small smile. “Perhaps you have a level seven intelligence.” That was the closest he’d get to a ‘thank you’ or compliment for anyone not Superman. Or Lyle on a good day.

[Katie Hearth]

“I don’t know,” Katie grumbled, “you sounded like you were pms-ing.” It was one of those slapdash comments she was accustomed to using when talking to her siblings, that there wasn’t much to it other than a response to his inorganic statement. Almost as if to digress away from what she had so plainly stated, -assuming that something of that nature would only provoke him into an inorganic fit of annoyance, Katie brought to attention Colu. They must have been beyond earth years, far more advanced than any fictional genre she’s seen before in television yet, a reasonable question crossed her mind.

“If you guys are so advanced, then shouldn’t you have some way of communicating with your people? Like some holographic talking device thingy?”

Brainiac emphasized and re-emphasized that Colun technology was the best, and there was no room for her to argue with someone who, not moments ago, produced a canon from his hands.

“Or like- highly advanced motorloa droid?”

Surely, he must have gone over infinite numbers of possibilities of remedying his current problem- possibilities that one simpleminded human could not hope to grasp, and that was perfectly fine with her. Katie was only human and her biggest priorities as a human was eating, sleeping, and getting some homework done. Simple enough, right? She couldn’t offer a solution to his problem. If anything, she could only deduct that he was merely here, lingering, because he was truly stuck and there was absolutely no way around it and if he couldn‘t figure out how to escape this primitive world, then she highly doubted herself capable of summoning up a magical solution for him either. And who’s to say that he wasn’t just stalling as well? Katie had noted his peculiar fascination with football, and his curiosity had drove him to wait after school to have a peak inside. Maybe, and it was just a fleeting thought that held no value or grain, but- just maybe he wasn’t interested in going back home. He could have done so in the span of time it took him to wait after school, or hanging around with her.

If a robot of high intellect wanted to go home, wouldn’t he have done so already?

In the end, it didn’t matter. Brainiac 5.0 was polite enough to collect what she had gathered and processed it without any disregard. It meant that he at least took the time to listen and that was perfectly fine with her. There was a comment he had brought up about her intelligence being at level seven. She wasn’t sure what that meant but she simply returned his smile, taking that as a hint of gratitude.

“No problem, dude. If you do find a way to go back home, you should consider sending me a thank you package from wherever it is you live,” she made her way to the next hall, uncertain of whether he wanted to continue their detour around school. If he was fascinated by the building blocks of education, she didn’t mind giving him the grand tour. It gave her time to assault him with questions about his own world, which she could only fathom was way more interesting than anything else she’d seen around campus. Not to mention, he was an intergalactic hero! Her mind was still reeling from that nugget of juicy information. He must have had a few good stories to tell and an interesting perceptive on the galaxy.

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[Brainiac 5]

Brainy frowned slightly, confused by her comment. “I thought only females did that on your planet?” he replied, his statement turning into a question, partway through. It wasn’t as though he studied reproductive cycles (in fact, the only reason he had done so was because the ‘birds and the bees’ talk Garth had given him had confused him greatly), but premenstrual cycles were common on almost all planets, though not all of them were confined to females, of course. On Earth, he had believed they were, but he could be wrong…

He blinked in surprise at the insightful question, surprised that she had even come up with such a thing, a seventh level for sure, before he replied. “Of course we do. However, I do not have access to one at the moment. It is… out of commission.” That was the best way to put that anyone else that he could contact with his ring was currently non-existent. Although… Perhaps Superman had kept his, he was unsure.

That would speak a great deal for the Kryptonian’s acceptance of him, if he did, though the Coluan did not wish to get his hopes up, just for them to be dashed once more. That happened far too often for his liking, especially involving Clark (though he knew that the new hero couldn’t live up to the impossible standards he placed Superman at, not yet), so he would attempt to not. He couldn’t suffer more heartbreak.

However, her next question thoroughly distracted him from that issue, as it brought forth something which he himself had been pondering over earlier. “Droid?” he questioned, all of his attention now focused on her and the knowledge which she was now sure to output. “As in android? I do not know the meaning of that word, but Clark has compared me to one before…” Using such a name was safe. As long as he did not give a last name, and did not mention anything about Superman, or whether Clark was on his team, or anything that could create connections between his best friend and idol, it was fine.

Besides, he truly enjoyed hearing the other’s name. He hoped that, one day, he’d get the pleasure of hearing the other say his own name. Brainy was fairly certain that Superman thought he didn’t have one.

At the comment, he smiled slightly, mostly at the sheer acceptance she was showing, and the normalcy of it all. “Perhaps I shall. What exactly would intrigue you?” He was slightly kidding, of course, as it would be very nearly impossible to send something back in time without someone delivering it, but if he ever had the opportunity to come back, or had enough spare parts to construct something at the lab he hoped to lay hands on, he would, if she continued to prove a valuable source of knowledge, give her something. Something that would not mess up the timeline, of course, which limited his options, but he could attempt to.

No one could say that he was not a valuable ally.

Eyes lighting up slightly (figuratively, not literally) as she moved onward, Querl followed her, casting eager eyes around to take it all in. It looked about the same as the previous hallway, of course, as it was in the headquarters, but it was not the same, so he waited patiently for his guide to give him some information on what exactly was located here.

[Katie Hearth]

The ends of her lips twitched into a smile, one that held a sliver of humor when he posed his question in retaliation to her comment, and then, almost without wanting to, a chuckle slipped from her grasp. “Lighten up, Brainy. I meant that you’re pretty temperamental.”

She looked at him expecting to see a flash of understanding, perhaps not through the purple lens that made up his eyes, but some common gesture that would reassure her that it made sense. “Anyways, yeah, Android.” Fishing into her pockets, the young girl pulled out a small contraption that had a recognizable brand embedded on the front, a cracked screen, and digits. The phone was not exactly a ‘smart phone’, not the kind that made geeks drool, but it was an upgrade to smoke signals and carrier pigeons in her opinion. A nondescript phone that served all of its basic -none smart- functions.

“There’s this smart phone called the Droid by Motorola, kinda’ looks like this, only it’s freaken awesome and can run pretty fast, too--” she stopped herself from stating how it was ‘faster than the speed of light’, knowing that it would further puzzle him. “Here, check it out.” Katie handed him her phone for closer inspection.

“This Clark person-- or whatever he - she - it is. I suppose must have had the right thought about calling you an android since you kinda’ act like a human, just a tinsy bit.” Her fingers closed in enough to show a gap to validate the small fraction of his humanistic qualities. She was interested in this Clark person, but the prospect of him bringing her something back from his world, whether he was true to his words or not, brightened her up a few notches, and an “are you serious?” with an emphasis on the last word gushed out. All thoughts on the person mentioned disappeared. There was a happy sparkle in her eyes and she was quick to make a long list of things he could bring back to her world- teleportation devices and holographic gadgets being at the top.

“I want something cool, and portable! Ooh! How about a thing that will make me go invisible! Or a teleportation device? No wait, that might be expensive- Hmm” She snapped her fingers, “get me something commonplace and small enough for me to carry in my pant pockets, ‘kay?- I don‘t care, it could even be a piece of paper from your world, I bet even that will be neat.”- yes, paper from the planet Colu.

“I mean,” she colored at her unchecked excitement, “-well, if you can, that is. If not then that‘s okay, too.” Katie bounded on her steps remembering that she still had a mission to do and that was to educate Brainiac 5.0 about school. A most bizarre feat yet.

“I’ll let you sleep on it. --Now, if you’ll direct your attention to me and this hallfway, you’ll be thrilled to know that we’re in the history hall, it’s the one that smells less of regret and more of pain and suffering,” she looked around and then pointed towards a door nearby, “that’s where I go. We normally go over founding fathers, events from the past that corresponds to our present time like wars and inventions that were made.”

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[Brainiac 5]

Ah, that made sense. Though why she had not said so in the beginning… She was confusing, in the way that Clark could be confusing, sometimes, but his friend never laughed at him, something which right now was causing a slight bit of a pout to form on his lips, and was always ready for an explanation.

Curious, though, he accepted the ‘smart phone’, his eyes immediately scanning its coding, and he ran his hands lightly over it, easily able to tell its make and the components which made it up. “This is very primitive,” he replied absentmindedly, though he was itching to take it apart. Could he? Looking up from it, he formed his question, hoping. “Can I take it apart? I will easily be able to put it back together, I promise.” He was very curious to inspect this, because phones had not existed for… Well, since before the Great Crisis.

“He’s male. A human. My best friend.” Of course, that last part was a lie, but it was a necessary one. The other might not recognize the name ‘Kryptonian’, but he didn’t want to risk it, not for his friend’s safety. Besides, he did not wish to explain how his friend’s powers, or anything like that, so best to go with something that Katie knew. But the second part… he was unsure on that. “I am just acting naturally…” He was unsure what denoted ‘acting human’. It was a very broad range, from the girl before him, to Lyle. The Coluan did suppose that he and Lyle were alike, in that they were both quite geniuses (though he was far above the other). Is that what she meant?

But her very odd enthusiasm caused Brainy to stare at her, slightly confused. He had not said that he would, just that it was an option, and she was already so excitable. It was… odd, really. On Clark, it was endearing, and he supposed that it wasn’t bad, when she did it, but it was still odd. “I invented a device that can render you invisible,” he offered up, reaching to touch the button on his belt, and he faded out of sight, before he touched it once more and rejoined the color spectrum. But he frowned at her last statement. “Colu doesn’t have paper. I could get you Winathian paper, if you wanted, I know that planet has it…”

That would be odd, really, to wish to have paper from another planet, but that would be relatively simple to lay his hands on. Just ask Lightning Lad, though he was certain the other would tease him if he found out why. He would just have to not mention that factor, then.

Thankfully, it seemed that the other actually remembered why they were in the building, and moved onward, Brainy drifted behind her, eyes widening as she explained the next hall. This was the history hall! History! Moving past her, to the door, he turned to her eagerly. “Could we go in? Please?” He even remembered to say please this time! But history, history… It was so fascinating, so absolutely fascinating, and he loved it. While most of the events he loved to study would have not happened by this point, the whole concept was still incredible, and a wonderful chance to learn more about the Earth before the Great Crisis. Imagine!

[Katie Hearth]

“Go ahead, knock yourself out. Just-- don’t erase anything on my memory card,” she wanted to add that her photos were valuable especially the one she took of him but decided against it. For all she knew, he could have easily erased that without remorse as to her epic achievement to one ridiculous dare and it was too late to just say no to his request. So she nodded and secretly hoped that with any luck he might even upgrade it to include some neat teleportation feature.

One could only hope.

The subject of Clark came back around and her ears perked up just a little more, however; the only clever response she could come up, next to ’he’s a human?’, was an ‘oh’. It made her think more than anything else how someone so high tech and advanced beyond human years could bridge a friendship with someone so primitive as a human. Honestly, by the end of her encounter with Brainy, Katie was convinced that the take away message would be that she lived in Neolithic times (may as well be a monkey next to him), he was extremely smart, and he knew squat jack about Earthly slang- which stretched the fine lines of her diabolical grin. However, this whole idea of his friendship with a human puzzled her greatly, and she showed it- it was hard for her to do otherwise, with her brows knitted and her arms crossed.

“Wait- so, how is that even possible? Have you been stranded here a long time or do you somehow hang with humans in your little galactic quest?” Him and friendships was really hard for her to fathom but she suppose, given enough time, someone like him could warm up to a human. That was the only crux to that idea. He just didn’t strike her as the friendship kind of guy. He was outside all alone, after all.

The conversation was a flip flop of different things. They jumped back and forth and it was no surprise why- every time he did something cool her former attention on a subject would be snagged immediately. The same applied when, in a display of his abilities, Brainy pushed something on his belt- no that wasn’t quite right, he twisted the front part of his belt and pressed, and before she knew it- before she could think anything more about him and Clark, he was gone right in front of her and Katie was left looking at empty space. Her mouth dropped and when he reappeared again, in the same abrupt fashion in which he left, Katie struggled to close her mouth. Instinctively (and she had next to zero impulse control at this point), she repeated his actions. A twist here, a push there, and he was gone. She chuckled half-heartedly.

“I don’t suppose you have an extra belt, preferably in red?” She doubted he would hand her one over, even if he had an extra one up in his sleeve. That didn’t mean she wouldn’t try.

‘Green beans’, as she opted to mentally dub him by was peculiar in more ways then one. He could have just threatened her at gun point, if he wanted something done but much of his reaction was to ask politely, respond considerably. She found him to be so confusing but she greatly appreciated his patience and polite customs and then when he spoke, ending his sentence with a please, it was hard for her to say no.

“No.”

Okay, maybe not that hard.

“Just messing with you. Right after you,” she opened the door and extended her other hand towards it in an ‘I’m going to display this room of despair with my best Colgate smile’.

“Ya’ know what, for someone who can go invisible, wouldn’t you benefit more if you just go to school…invisible. I mean, I‘m not doubting your level twelve intelligence or nothing‘, but seriously- you‘d probably get a better experience from that. Just saying. Otherwise, you‘re going to have to deal with me and I barely pay attention in class.” She walked towards the front of the class, and used the chalk to draw a very poor caricature of Brainy and the words ‘DUH’ at the top.

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[Brainiac 5]

Immediately at the acceptance, his fingers were moving, prying off the back cover of the ‘android’ with ease, and then one of his fingers hooked into the chip, information channeled into him, and he frowned slightly. She… had a picture of him on here? Had that been what she was doing earlier? “You took a picture of me?” he asked curiously, though he did not look up from the device. There was so little information stored on it that it was such a quick process, to download it all, and so immediately Brainy went about tearing it apart, database-wise. To any looking upon him, he was practically having a stare-down with the small object, his eyes faded and elsewhere as he explored the limits of its space, and he began his first project with it: Make it have a higher memory drive.

Though 33.67% of his mind was still devoted to doing such, Brainy looked up at the question, and shook his head lightly. “I have only been here for 19 hours, 2 minutes, and 17 seconds,” he informed her, before explaining. “There are a few humans on my team, though they are not ordinary. Meta-humans, I believe you call them?” The last statement turned into a question, as he was not a hundred percent sure. 85.4% sure, as Bouncing Boy was well-versed in 21st century slang (how he wished he had the other here, to help him comprehend!), and had used that word before to refer to himself, but then again, he could have just made it up. That was quite the possibility.

As soon as he had answered such a question, and displayed his camo-belt, Brainy returned his attention to the item clasped in his hand, expanding the memory database, shifting around the coding in order to do so, and remove annoying data that the creators had placed in there, likely for identification and copyright purposes, but it was annoying, and far too easy to delete that. Of course, that was certainly not the limit of what he was doing, he was also shifting around the magnetic field within the device, in order to-

His thoughts froze as Katie mimicked his actions, and he instantaneously blended with the environment. To such a primitive creature as a human, he appeared invisible, but to him, it was almost as if he had adopted the nature of a chameleon, and he sighed slightly, using his free hand to reveal himself once more, and he narrowed his eyes at her. “Do not do that again,” he snapped, before shaking his head. “This belt is custom-designed, for me alone. I do not have any extras.” Extra Legion belts? He didn’t have them at the moment, of course, but they were fairly easy to construct. His belt, though? No, it was one of a kind, his very own, and he would not share such an invention with anyone.

Well… Perhaps with Superman, if he wished to. Or Norg, if he used his ‘imagination’ of his for a good idea.

Before he could get back fully absorbed into ‘playing’ with his newest ‘toy’, Katie refused him. She wouldn’t? Truly? Brainy frowned, drooping slightly, but before he could say anything, she revealed her joke. It wasn’t funny, and his frown stayed in place. “Good. I would have disregarded you and entered anyway.” After coming this far? No, he was going to look around.

So devoting 42.63% of his mind to finishing up the expansion of the database room, after which he was going to move on to connecting it to himself, in case of emergency (let him be paranoid, it was his job, seeing as Batman was, or rather would be, long gone), Brainy entered the room, looking around with curiosity. This was… so vastly different from what he had seen. It was so primitive, wooden desks, a chalkboard, books… It was wonderful, and he couldn’t help but feel his demeanor lighten up, happy.

That was quickly interrupted by a drawing of him, and Katie’s words, though they did not mar it, for he supposed she did have a point. Querl responded with a lifted eyebrow. “I did not exactly plan to come and attend your ‘school’,” he informed her matter-of-factly, the now 32.89% of his mind syncing him and her android. “Besides, I do not wish to be invisible… This way, I can ask questions and the like, rather than hide and attempt to not be touched. It would have been unlikely I would have enjoyed that as much.” He did not like hiding, though he did detest being touched. Though he had been gradually conditioned to it, via Triplicate Girl and Lyle, who had almost made him ‘cry’.

[Katie Hearth]

She nodded at him when he brought up the term ’meta-human’ and then hesitantly returned his question with an answer, “I took the picture to fulfill a dare,” she said, knowing full well that the question wasn’t about whether or not she had taken the picture (he knew the answer to that all along), what he really meant to say was why. At least, that’s how it sounded like to her. “Dare is when someone challenges another person to do something,” she added, matter-of-factly, “and you HAVE to do it.”

Katie had settled on one of the desks, her attention was pitched between her current guest, and then towards the window where she had seen the last yellow school bus exiting the front gates. Brainiac was quick to dissect her phone. He had peeled open the back and, in a surprising display of performance, he hooked his finger into her phone. Katie had only to stare to try and comprehend what was going on, but no matter how hard she tried, the only thing she could get out of this was that he was having some mental conversation with her phone.

She wasn’t sure whether to speak. It seemed like one of those instances where she needed to remain quiet in order to let him concentrate on the task. So in that silence, she took the time to observe him. The first thing that caught her attention was the rings around his forehead. It reminded her of computer chips which wasn’t saying much since her knowledge on any kind of chip in general was minute, which fit his overall apparel. Second to that notion was his blonde hair. There was no saying how weird she found it seeing a robot with human looking hair. It appeared silky and conditioned but not otherworldly. Brainiac’s attention though, she thought it to be undivided and consequently hooked to the very contraption, shifted back to the room, and he took it in- she couldn’t quite explain the mood that overcame her companion but she had only to guess that it was marveling over the details, drinking it all up before answering her question.

“Okay, gotcha’.”

But not really. She didn’t understand his enthusiasm. Katie was the type of student that would have rather escaped class just to enjoy a breath of outside air. He seemed perfectly content to do the exact opposite. Nerds, she thought.

“So how’s life like in outer space? It must be exciting.”

Her eyes landed back on the phone and now that they were talking again, she brought up the one question that had been burning in her head, “and what are you doing with my phone?”

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[Brainiac 5]

A dare. He had been photographed for a dare. In truth, Brainiac 5 was unsure of what to make of such a thing. He had never been one for such things, not even when Superman managed to coerce them all into a game of ‘Truth and Dare’ (he sat on the sidelines working on an invention the whole time, and picked truth whenever called upon, usually only by Superman himself or Luornu), but most of what he had seen was exceedingly juvenile. This… was simply annoying. “I know what a ‘dare’ is,” was his curt reply, with narrowed eyes in Katie’s direction, before he mulled over what to do about the photo. He could delete it, of course, and avoid a time paradox, but the likelihood that a picture taken by a civilian would impact the timeline more than his presence here was less than 4% (3.57%, to be exact), so… it would not be necessary.

“Be careful to whom you show the picture,” he ended up saying, not looking at her as he did so. There, that should be fine.

His work on her ‘android’ was moving quickly, and he was now successfully hooked up to it. Just a simple dialing of ‘12’, and he would be on the way, for danger purposes only. Much like how Superman gave that watch to his friend Jimmy Olsen whom he was not jealous of in any way, of course not. Should he add a tracking device? It only took a fraction of a second to decide that, yes, he would, and the Coluan proceeded to do that, though he refocused so that 47.6% of his attention was on that while he considered the human’s question.

“It is… quite different from earth,” he started, wondering how exactly to phrase it. It wasn’t like he was extremely knowledgeable on ancient earth, considering that much information was lost in the Great Crisis, though his knowledge from Brainiac probably made him one of the experts in his century. “My team, the Legion of Super-Heroes, and I often find ourselves summoned to many planets to deal with their… issues, such as fighting off our foes the ‘Fatal Five’, and dealing with insane millionaires like… Alexis.” It was obvious both from the look on his face and the tone in which he said the girl’s name that he disliked her exceedingly much. Such expression was tantamount to hatred for Coluans, though none but himself and those closest to him would realize such a fact.

“I spend much of my time in my lab, creating new inventions and selling the patents when they have no use in enforcing justice.” Added a little smugly were the words “I have amassed quite the fortune for myself.” He was also fairly certain that most of his team had no idea that quite a few of the inventions that came out were his design, as he did not wish to be publically credited. After all, it would not due to sully his reputation as a Legionnaire.

Aaand… done! Now he could track her anywhere, if need be, perfect. Just in time to answer her question. Blinking at her, he rattled off his short list, which would’ve been longer had he not had to have a discussion with her. “I have copied all the information and downloaded it into my database, erased the unnecessary information that the manufacturer included, expanded your database so that you can hold five times the information limit you currently have, though I can expand it even further if you give me more time, connected it to my ring and core processors so that you will be able to contact me if you enter twelve, and I have now just finished adding a tracking device.” Not enough, he felt, in his experimentation with such a primitive device.

Wait, was that human for ‘I want it back’? The species could be so confusing, sometimes… “Do you… wish to have it back?” He was loath to, especially because there was so much more he could do, but he understood the feeling of someone else tampering with your technology.

Superman knows he had blown up at both Lyle and Vi enough times for it.

[Katie Hearth]

“I bet you’re just saying that.” She was nonplussed by his curt tone, in fact, one would say she merely glossed over it like a pro who has met thicker tones, heavier sighs, and curt indignations hurled her way during the past thirteen years. It made one resilient, to some extent. When he talked, he added emphasis in his annoyance by narrowing his eyes. It seemed like an easy expression to fall into, for someone like Brainiac, anyways. That bit, she had acknowledged though she showed little signs of being moved by any force of his character, or the way he responded to her, almost taught with indignation. It wasn’t difficult for her to make up an assumption on his behalf. She was starting to believe that his uptightness was a default setting deeply embedded in his character rather than a challenge to his patience, so it didn’t bother her when he shot her a look or answered her with a hint of something not quite pleasant. Katie took it in stride, swinging her legs, not bothering to pay any heed to his tone of voice.

All the same, she poised her attention towards Brainiac, brows knitted, when he mentioned the picture. It was a little too late for that. She had entertained a large audience of curious students with her phone all day, not to mention, Andrew had insisted, quite temptingly, she released the file on the web. ‘It would have gone viral!’, he had claimed on several occasions. The only thing stopping her from unleashing this nugget of gold into the world was Andrew’s exasperation and the acts of kindness he bestowed on her in order to sway her into giving him the picture. Tomorrow he was going to bring his mom’s delicious tarts, the latest Monkey Man Four game, and her new batch of homework that he had insisted on doing for her. But the way Brainiac spoke of the picture made her second guess her original plan of action. Would he be upset? Would he even know? At least he wasn’t looking at her because she was sure her expression would have betrayed her or in the very least, indicate that the picture had been floating around school. It was difficult for her to appear guiltless. So she nodded, and then brought up her voice loud enough for him to hear an ‘a-okay!’. That was convincing enough- she hoped. He was more occupied with her phone than herself, however; and that brought a sense of relief when he continued to play with the contraption.

The subject changed when he answered her question, and that too extinguish the gut wretching feeling inside. In addition to that, she found herself painting a picture through Brainiac’s words. The Legion of Superheroes. She imagined a group of five intergalactic heroes of different races and varying age groups though she was sure her mind could not equip her to imagine the vastness in which his reality was based on. They must have looked somewhat like him in terms of uniforms and in sense of humor. They must have looked somewhat like him, young with strange costumes, and perhaps sea green complexion. Alexis, to her, sounded human, too, but all the same, the intensity of his voice made her question whether this Alexis was just a nice way of saying evil grotesque monster.

“Sounds kinda’ sad. Don’t you play games or hang out in your spare time?” Brainiac living inside a lab, she could imagine, him hanging out with friends not so much, but that did explain the grumpiness factor. Katie stopped her swinging and gave him a look. She wondered how someone like him, someone who valued alone time, from the sound of it, would use money for. Katie envisioned a cold neglected lab with spider webs and dim lighting and all of a sudden outer space did not sound so appealing, either. Not within those confines. Him venturing into other planets, however; was a different story. It must have been exciting! She wondered what other planets were like, what other alien races looked like, how they interacted, what they did for a living. Every little facet she found interesting.

Katie held her hand out and waited for him to deposit her phone after a thoughtful ‘hmm’.

“Yeah, I think I’ll hold onto it. I’m kind of expecting a call from boss mom soon.” She was curious by the upgrades, though that was accompanied by a sense of precaution. She had not expected him to go all out on her phone, least of all include a tracking device and her own special emergency number.

“So, does this mean were friends? Or is this your way of getting my digits?” She gave him a pointed stare.

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