Few Screws Loose [Aileen]

[Brainiac 5]

Something felt… off. Like he was forgetting something. But Brainiac 5 did not forget anything, so he continued on. He was headed to the electronics store, in order to gain some technology for his rebuilding of the Time Bubble. Of course, it would be highly primitive, but he could use it, rip it apart and take the key components, so it would at least be worth something. However, the fact that it felt like something was niggling at his brain, something that was so familiar…

His eyes shot open as the thoughts connected, and he realized what exactly it was. The alignment! In this time, it was happening right now! Immediately, the Coluan threw up firewall after firewall, and had succeeding in surrounding all of his thoughts, and was reinforcing them, when… he connected.

It was like all of his data was streaming away from him, leaving his mind empty and blocked, eyelids growing heavier and heavier as he sagged against the wall, his normally sharp mechanical eyes grow dull as they were covered by green lids. The world took on a dreamy quality, rough and blurred around the edges, like his vision was fading, and everything seemed… distant, like he had partially connected himself to the Sleepnet, yet was not allowing himself to fall into it…

When everything snapped back. Into the wrong place.

Eyes snapping open and widening into large orbs of purple, a child-like, very uncharacteristic grin spreading over the green alien’s face, the Coluan, now with a significantly lower IQ, looked around, awe written in every feature of him. “I’m in BLUDHAVEN!” he cheerfully announced, grinning wildly as his eyes roved around the place.

That was when they landed on the pastry store, and, more specifically, on a tray of delicious-looking chocolate chip cookies. Chocolate chip cookies.

“Mr. Wolf!” he delightedly spoke, seemingly addressing the cookies, and raced forwards. At the moment, though, he wasn’t paying attention, and promptly crashed into someone, knocking them both to the ground.

Rolling off of the person, Querl whimpered, holding his head. “I’m a negative!” he wailed, though thankfully without tears, as he couldn’t produce any. “No more room for me in the ring-around-a-rosy!"

And that's terrible! Four tens terrible!

[Aileen Merle Whitman]

Now this was the right way to shop. No giant, rampaging, spitting pig monsters, and no idiotic and casually-flirty hooded hero-wannabes to disrupt the peace. Aileen gave a peaceful sigh and her expression was almost something close to a smile. She strolled through the mall at a leisurely pace, several shopping bags in each hand. Not even how ridiculously crowded the mall was could deter her fair mood. As she walked, the girl considered heading into one last store before she left. She had been shopping for quite some time... Gently dropping the shopping bags in one hand, and reaching into her dress pocket. Aileen procured her cell-phone and consulted it for the time before placing it back where it belonged. It was getting a bit late, and Aileen was about ready to drop, as the saying went.

Dark eyes scanned the mall around her, double-checking to ensure there indeed was nowhere else she wanted to shop. Something caught her gaze, causing her head to tilt slightly in consideration. It was a small pet store. Normally, she avoided those like the plague because of her cynophobia... But still... The store seemed to call out to her. Aileen's experience the other day with the dog in the alley and the strange girl had been humiliating. She couldn't afford to show that kind of weakness again. As if compelled by some unknown force, Aileen made her way to the pet store. Each footstep grew more difficult to take as dread weighed her feet down.

As she entered the store, Aileen attempted to swallow her fear. She slowly made her way to the back of store, where they kept the larger live animals, such as dog and cats. She stopped in front of a cage that contained a few rough-housing puppies. She stared in absolute horror, unable to decide what to do. Should she leave now? Or carry on after having come this far?

"May I help you?" A woman, wearing an smock with the store's logo on it asked. Aileen merely nodded softly in response, and pointed to one of the puppies. "Want to pet it? She questioned kindly. Aileen hesitated for a moment, but nodded once more none-the-less. The woman retrieved the puppy from the pen and held it in front of Aileen with both arms. "He's a bit big... He's five months old, now."

Aileen flinched away, but after a moment, slowly put out her hand to pet the animal. As her hand made contact with the puppy, Aileen squeaked in fright, and pulled her hand back. "That is all." She said to the store worker woman and turned away. She walked towards the store exit, her pace quick, leaving the woman to stare in confusion. As Aileen left the store, her legs were shaky, but she couldn't help the small sense of pride blossoming within her. She had done it! She had faced her fear! But she never intended to do it again. Ever. But still... It was an impressive feat, from her perspective. Today had been a pretty good day.

But they say that a happy ending depends on where you stop the story.

As Aileen walked through the mall, making her way towards the exit, a smell wafting through that area of the mall caught her attention. Sniffing delicately, the dark-haired girl turned her gaze in search for the aroma. Her eyes landed on a pastry shop on the opposite wall from her, and she shrugged. It was early enough that a snack wouldn't spoil her dinner. Why not? She questioned herself silently, and made her way across the mall towards the pastry shop. As she got closer to the storefront, details of what was on display became clearer. Her eyes, heart, and stomach were set on a single one of those delicious looking chocolate cookies. Hefting her bag over her shoulder, she ever-so-slightly quickened her pace.

Then it hit her. Literally. The impact of something, or someone slamming into her landed her on the hard floor of the mall. Sprawled on the ground, Aileen realized that something was ontop of her. Something big and metal. Thankfully, it rolled off quickly. Aileen sat up, winced, and rubbed the back of her sore head. "That was unpleasant..." She mumbled to herself, before looking up, in search of the reason for her fall. Her dark eyes narrowed in rage, upon discovering it was indeed a person responsible. How rude! Why didn't he look where he was going?! Angrily, Aileen launched herself off the floor and into a standing position. Throwing her index finger out in an accusing manner, the short girl confronted her assailant, ignoring the wailing. "You idiot! What is wrong with you?! Watch where you run, you green freak!"

[Brainiac 5]

Despite the fact that he was in a very different state than usual, that his normally off the charts IQ had dropped, drastically, and was manifesting itself in the form of cryptic statements, the word couldn’t help but make him flinch. Freak. He still had all of his memories, still remembered who he was, and that word had been heard far too many times for his liking. Freak. “Not a freak!” he said seriously, his eyes narrowed up at the girl, in probably the last coherent statement he’d make for the next ten hours, before a dopey grin slid back over on his face, and he launched himself upwards, beaming at the girl who was around his own height.

“Apparition!” he exclaimed, delighted, though someone she was shorter. Huh. Maybe she had Vi’s powers, too! But that meant… “VI!” he wailed out of nowhere, face crumpling as he buried his face in his hands. She was gone! Maybe Drax ate her! Or Alexis!

Definitely Alexis, she was evil enough. She had tried to take Superman, the meanie-poo!

However, as he now had the attention span of a flea, that quickly passed, and he ended up beaming up at Apparition. Fun! They were both in Bludhaven again! “Apparition!” he chimed again, grinning at her and rocking on his heels. “Where did your circles go?” Ooh, her eyes seemed to have multiple circles, maybe they moved there?

Cool! He wanted his circles in his eyes, too! Much better than being on his forehead!

Beaming brightly at her, Querl remembered exactly what he had come for, and snatched his friend’s hand, pulling her along. “Come on!” he delightedly told her, pulling, pulling, pulling. “We gotta get your husband!” Yay, cookies! Best day ever!

There were no Red Ants! Or Green fudge! Perfect! He didn’t like those, nope.

[Note: Yeah, kind of short, but considering that B5 isn't up to thinking/describing things, only a minimum I can do. But I decided to explain his cryptic statements, for the heck of it.
Apparition: This is Phantom Girl's, one of his teammates, original alias. They're both color-themed the exact way, but she has these circle clips in her hair, as well as /very/ minimal irises, so he thinks her clips migrated into her eyes.
Vi: That's his nickname for his friend, Shrinking Violet, who has the ability to, well, shrink. So because 'Apparition' is shorter, he thinks that Vi is now dead, and Apparition has her powers. =_=
Husband: Another reference to the 'Mr. Wolf' from above. It's his teammate, Timber Wolf, who makes the best cookies ever, and is... sort of dating Phantom Girl. It's complicated.
Other: Red ants = Red Sun, Green fudge = Kryptonite. Fairly simple. C:]

[Aileen Merle Whitman]

At his denial at her insult, Aileen just sighed and rolled her eyes. No way she was going to waste any time on humoring someone this freaky. She turned away from the green-skinned boy, and dusted off her clothes, before moving to pick up her shopping bags. Aileen had lost hold of the stiff, paper bags during her collision course, and they lay, disheveled on the ground. As she retrieved them, she couldn't help but give an irate sigh. Things had been so perfectly normal today. But no, the universe just had to send some weird, green robot her way. Who apparently had the brain of a three-year-old.

Bags in hand, Aileen turned to leave. However, she had taken all of one step, before the boy called out to her. In confusion, the dark-haired girl turned back around to face him. "...Apparition?" She repeated, confused, "What are you even—" Her question was cut off as the boy let out yet another wail, and Aileen flinched. A strange emotion—sympathy—one she was unaccustomed to feeling washed over her. Frowning, Aileen decided she could maybe, possibly try to comfort him. Maybe that would stop the obnoxious wailing. "Uhm, look... Everything..." Her attempted words at comfort died off as she noticed he was once again smiling. She just couldn't keep up. He was obviously on some emotional roller-coaster, and Aileen hated amusement parks.

And then there came the name again. Clearly, the three-year-old robot in a teenage body was mistaken. Aileen shook her head, as if trying to shoo away the clinging confusion. "...My circles...? What? What is wrong with you?!" Flustered, Aileen tried to determine what a normal person would do in this situation. Should she just leave? Oh, how she wanted to leave. But that was a difficult task, considering the green, robo-boy had her hand in his, dragging her along as her moved. Rage bubbled up within Aileen. No one touched her. No one dragged her. With the hand he was not dragging her by, Aileen lashed out. Twice, she hit him with her shopping bags. It wouldn't do much, but at least it would get his short attention. "Let me go!" The girl demanded, her rage clear in her voice, as she pulled her hand, "Right now!" Stomping angrily, Aileen questioned, "Who even are you?!"

[Note: No, no, no! Don't worry about it! I understand. My post would've been pretty short too, if not for the goose. Plus this one is too. So don't sweat it. No need to worry about the word count. And thank you for explaining all of that.]

[Brainiac 5]

Huh. Apparition was acting funny today, wasn’t she? But he was funny, too! Ha ha! Ooh, maybe she wanted to hear a joke? She told really good ones, and he could tell good ones too! Knock Knock! Knock Knock! Why did no one ever use a doorbell? Ding-Dong? Ding-Dong? Always knocking… Maybe they had been playing with red ants! Those made important people sick, yes. Or maybe the Green Fudge.

Blinking at his friend as she asked questions, Querl focused on the most important one: the circles. “Your hair circles!” he chirped brightly, tugging gently on one of her strands of hair with his free hand. “I got circles, too!” With that, he poked his forehead, and then his chest, before the thought made him gasp and grin. “We match!” he exclaimed delightedly, smile spread from ear to ear. “Does that make us BFFs like Luornu?” They all matched, even if different colors.

Hm, he and Apparition were different colors, too. He was purple and green, she was white and black… Maybe they could get some paint, after they got cookies, and make each other match! That’d be fun! Pleased with that thought, he continued to pull his friend behind him, humming a little tune that sounded like… Ooh, dark tunnel there. Stay away from it, don’t go towards the light!

However, his musings on hums and why they led to dark tunnels in his mind was promptly jolted to a halt as he was hit by Apparition’s bags. Was this revenge for shooting a laser at her? That had been way long ago! Like, a year! Immediately dropping her hand with a whimper, the robot gave his best kicked-puppy look. She sounded really, really mad. Tinya didn’t get mad, ever, only happy, and sad when her Mommy came around. This wasn’t good, oh no!

Did she… had she forgotten his name? Not his codename, of course, Apparition wasn’t stupid, but maybe his real name! He never used it, so maybe she was mad now that she couldn’t remember! Perking up at the fact that he had seemingly solved the problem, he beamed at her. “I! Am! Querl!” he announced, punctuating each word with an exclamation mark. There, much better!

“Come on,” he exclaimed brightly, mind already moving on as he offered his hand to her, not wanting to risk her wrath by grabbing it again. “Log time!”

[Note: Luornu: Triplicate Girl. She can split into three, all of her parts looking identical, but for color differences, though they have distinct personalities.
Dark Tunnel: The song he's humming is his mother's favorite song. So when he tried to think of where it was from, it led him to a... not so nice part of his mind, which he quickly avoided.
Logs: Again, reference to 'Timber Wolf', though to the 'Timber' part.]

[Aileen Merle Whitman]

As the strange boy had tugged at her hair, Aileen angrily slapped his hand away. "Do not touch me." She hissed. Aileen's dark eyes narrowed on the circles he was pointing to. She'd call them odd, but she supposed that on a robot, really nothing could be considered strange. "We in now way match. And no, we are not even friends, and certainly not 'BFFs'. In fact, my first impression of you is that I really dislike you." She berated. Tch... This is way too strange... She thought to herself. By now, Aileen was accustomed to the oddities that seemed inherent of a super-teen, but that didn't mean she liked it. All Aileen truly wanted was to not be bothered by all of this strangeness. Even a simple day of shopping had something crazy tacked onto the end. And that robot boy was indeed crazy.

After she had hit him with her shopping bags, Aileen couldn't muster up any sympathy for the robot boy. Not even that ridiculously pathetic expression could tug at her almost non-existent heartstrings. Especially when, in her mind, the attack had been completely deserved and justified. That's what one did when they where dragged somewhere by a completely and utterly strange stranger, right? Attack? Better safe than sorry. Not to mention the physical damage had been minimal at most!

As the robot boy, who she now knew was named Querl, answered the name question, Aileen spoke up once again. "It would be in your best interest to listen now, Querl," she said the name with disdain, "My name is not Apparition. My name is Aileen. Aileen Merle Whitman. You are to call me by nothing else!" As if to emphasize her point, Aileen once again stomped her foot. As her black shoe rang hit the ground the sound echoed, a few passing heads in the crowded mall turned their attention to the noise. "Hmph." Aileen turned her head in a snubbing manner, her eyes closed and her nose slightly in the air. However, her cold-shoulder-giving was interrupted by Querl once again holding his hand out to her. Aileen opened a single eye to momentarily examine it, before slapping the hand away with all her strength. "No."

"...Ow..." Aileen winced, mere seconds afterwards. Slapping him so hard hurt her hand... He really was metal, unsurprisingly. The repercussions of slapping something to solid had failed to cross her mind until it was too late. As Aileen clutched her hand, she took another moment to completely observe Querl. He was a robot, that was for sure... But he didn't seem like the other robots she had seen thus far. He was strangely... emotional. Never had she seen a robot display so many emotions. And he was actually around her height! That was actually a welcome oddity. Despite her anger and disdain towards the boy, Aileen couldn't help but be curious. Turning away her gaze away to examine her now red hand, she questioned, "What are you and why are you so annoying?"

[Brainiac 5]

He pouted at her words. Not touching her? Apparition was acting weird. She was always all over him (not as much as Luornu, but still) and stuff, especially all over Brin… Ooh, was she worried he would take it the wrong way! That made sense, okay, no touching!

The instant after he figured that out, he promptly forgot.

Oh. If she didn’t have her circles, then of course they wouldn’t match! She was smart! Way smarter than his negativeness! However, her words hurt him. Really, really bad. Like ‘my ancestor is really evil’ bad, and he was absolutely distraught. “You… You do?” Querl questioned, lower lip trembling, and looked as if he were on the verge of tears. Of course, he couldn’t actually cry, but if he could, he would’ve been. Why didn’t she like him? She had before!

A revelation swept through what parts of his mind were actually intact and working. She liked his brains! Of course! That was it! Apparition didn’t know he was going through the alignment, so she thought he was being all ‘brain-eaten’ on purpose, and stuff like that! No way! He didn’t want to be negative, grife no, but Tinya didn’t know that, and she didn’t know his brains were eaten, and all that stuff! Of course! That made sense!

Before he could speak up and explain to one of his friends why exactly he was like this, so she should be his friend, she should, Tinya spoke up, and he cocked his head, confused. Not Apparition? Ooh, yeah, she had changed her name to Phantom Girl, had to remember it. Name changes were so stupid. He had been Brainiac 5 forever, and he was never gonna change! Nope, nope, nope! But… her ‘real’ name… Wasn’t it Tinya? Huh, he was wrong that. Stupid him! No wonder Phantom Girl didn’t like him right now!

“I’m sorry, Aileen Merle Whitman!” he wailed slightly, ‘sniffling’ and feeling distraught. “Didn’t mean to!” Of course, that emotion vanished a moment later, when a song came on the speakers. There had been music playing the whole time, in the background, but he liked this song. Whatever it was. So he bobbed his head back and forth, grinning like a loon. He wanted to dance! He could do that while talking to Aileen Merle Whitman, right?

…Maybe not dance. He’d have to do that after he finished!

Barely noticing when his hand was slapped away, mostly because he had already forgotten why he had been holding it out, Querl blinked at the fact that his hand had suddenly changed position, bringing it back and stopping in his head moving so he could stare at it, mouth slightly agape and eyes wide, before he looked up at Aileen Merle Whitman, mouth opening a bit more as he saw that her hand had changed colors. “Magic hands!” he exclaimed, awed, before he corrected himself. “No, powerful hands.”

No such thing as magic. Only triple negatives believed in that.

Being distracted by the hands, he quickly resumed his head moving, accompanied by a little bit of swaying to the music, as the other questions headed his way. “I! Am! Brainiac! Five!” he replied with a grin, punctuating each sentence with both an exclamation mark and a clap, before he paused, freezing his body mid-sway, as he tried to make his broken mind work for an answer to the second one.

It didn’t work out so much.

Resuming his former movement, he simply smiled dopily at the other. “They’re eating my brains!” Of course, it was then that his statement sunk into his head, and horror enveloped his face as he stopped his dancing. Instead, his hands went to clutch at his head while he looked horrified and stressed at the same time. “They’re eating my brains!” he yelled in a fearful tone of voice, completely oblivious to the fact that there were other people in the mall with them.

Having less than a quarter of a functioning brain will do that to a robot.