2521/The Green-Eyed Monster

The Green-Eyed Monster
Date of Scene:	20 September 2017
Location:	Legion Cruiser: Lab
Synopsis:	There's a new Brainiac 5 in town.
Cast of Characters:	Brainiac 5, Invisible Kid
Tinyplot:	Mirror, Mirror

---

Brainiac 5 has posed:
        Brainy has been busily running time-space experiments.  He insists he's on the verge of a breakthrough that will let him bypass whatever Mordru has done, and he's been spending a lot of long stretches of time in the lab, doing sensitive work.
        It's in the middle of the night-cycle on one of those nights that the whole ship shudders, and emergency klaxons come on.  K.O.K.O's voice comes over the ship's intercom: "Hull breach in Laboratory Subsection.  Emergency force-field engaged.  Temporal/Dimensional anomaly detected."
        "Intruder Alert."

Invisible Kid has posed:
        Lyle is almost as possessive of the labs as a certain green genius.  The only delay in responding, and barely half a second's worth, was making sure Shadow was safely sealed in his room.
        The alert brought him running—the further announcement that it was in the lab brought him flying, invisibly, full speed.  Preliminary assumption: one of Querl's experiments got away from him.  Note to self: sneak into the lab more often to doublecheck his work.
        All right, time for theory to meet reality.  He slips into the lab, still invisible.

Brainiac 5 has posed:
        The room is filled with damaged equipment, and smoke—and when Lyle sneaks in, he's greeted by… Brainy.
        Well.  Sort of.  This Brainy has longer hair.  And he's wearing a black and silver jumpsuit.  And when he looks up, his green eyes are icy, hard, and cruel.  He has a ray gun in in one hand, and a headset on.  Brainy is on the other side of the lab.
        "I knew it.  Simple multiverse theory indicated that a universe in close proximity to our own would have experienced a similar event cascade—and that another Universe's version of me would also be looking for a way to get home."  He gesticulates, with the ray gun, before he steps over the shattered remains of Brainy's experiment.
        Brainy is on the ground, green blood trickling from the corner of his mouth, as he struggles to push himself up.
        Then the other Brainy puts a booted foot on his head.  "Don't."  He looks up, and smirks.  "Ah.  And there's Lyle."  He taps his headset.  "Lyle, Lyle… do you know what I did to you in my universe?  You thought you were so clever.  I was going to lobotomize you, but Cosmic Lord talked me out of it.  So instead…."  He grins.  "I installed a chip in your brain so that when you turn invisible, it's agonizingly painful.  Is 'Invisible' your default state, too?  Imagine having to keep that reflex tensed, all the time."  He shakes his hair back.
        "Anyway."

Invisible Kid has posed:
        Okay, process the current situation.
        Lyle does, and he doesn't like it.  Parallel universe Brainiac of unknown iteration, who's got enough experience with a parallel universe Invisible Kid to be able to see him.
        Lyle's also painfully aware that he's not armed.  Funny how all of a sudden now that seems important.
        What he says, with an uncommon coldness in his voice, is: "Get away from Querl and you might be allowed to leave unhurt."

Brainiac 5 has posed:
        That makes the other Querl tilt his head.  "I'd really like to go along with that.  But he's pretty much the only man in your universe who can stop me."
        "Lyle—" Brainy says, extending one hand—
        And then the black-clad Querl shoots him with that ray-gun.  There is a flash of light;
        And then Brainiac 5's empty uniform collapses to the floor, and his ring clatters to the floor of the lab.
        "So I'm afraid he had to die."  Then Querl turns, and he's got that ray gun trained on Lyle.  "Don't move.  I see that your ship possesses a Wormhole Gate?  You can just stay right where you are while I access its control code.  Shouldn't be more than a minute."  He smirks.
        "I didn't really want to kill him.  He was also the only man in this universe capable of comprehending the scope of my genius.  But you know, sometimes you have to do things you don't want to—"  His eyebrow perks.  "Temporal energy spike."
        There is a flash of blue electric light, and then a masked figure in a black bodysuit comes tumbling out of it, with a pair of blaster pistols trained on the Black-Clad Querl.  He fires.
        Querl raises one hand to deflect the energy blasts, but this forces him to turn the ray gun away from Lyle.  "What—"

Invisible Kid has posed:
        That's all the opening Lyle needs to go for a full speed bodyslam into the intruder.
        The look on his face is eloquent.  He wants to hurt this interloper.
        Even so, there's no yell of rage, no battlecry, nothing of the sort.  He's well trained to strike silently.  Fortunately, his Legion training is well-ingrained—at the last second, he moves his arm away from its original aim, at the villain's neck.  And in any case, killing him would only end the world of hurt Lyle wants to put him through.

Brainiac 5 has posed:
        WHAM!  The evil Querl goes sprawling to the floor, as Lyle hits him in the face—and then he turns his head, and gives Lyle a savage grin.  "In my universe, you called this foreplay."  Then… he's kissing Lyle on the mouth.  It's not nice.  There's the taste of coppery blood.
        And then the slip-gate opens… beneath the black and silver clad Brainy.  He winks… and uses his force-field to push Lyle off, as he drops through it.
        The lab is silent, and then the second visitor holsters his pistols.  "No.  No, no, no… I was too late," he says, the visor of his mask dully reflective.  "We were supposed to save him—"

Invisible Kid has posed:
        Lyle barely hears—he's already grabbing for a scanner and diving for the untenanted uniform.  He has no idea what he's looking for.  He doesn't know the weapon used or the energies involved.  Something in the back of his head tells him he's grasping at straws.
        He picks up Brainy's ring and tries not to think about that whole mess with Booster Gold.  Staring at it, all he can manage to say is, "We didn't."

Brainiac 5 has posed:
        There's residual energy from the energy blast—but it's like Brainy was edited out of existence.  Like he turned into evaporated vapor.
        The black-clad figure approaches, and as he leans down, it becomes apparent, he's wearing a Legion flight ring.
        "Stargrave will have gone to Earth.  We have to find him."

Invisible Kid has posed:
        "Stargrave—" Lyle repeats, and finally fully registers the other's presence.  "The other Brainiac."  He doesn't wait for an answer.  "And who are you?" he demands tightly.  "How'd you get that ring?  You're no Legionnaire I know."  He's visibly shaking, and there's a slightly unhinged edge in his voice.  His gaze is a little unfocused—it's too big.  He can't get what's just happened into his head.

Brainiac 5 has posed:
        The figure pauses, and then he sighs.  He reaches up to begin to peel up his mask.  "I was hoping to not reveal my identity, but given the nature of the Time Fractal, I suppose it doesn't matter."  He exposes a perfectly ordinary human chin, and pauses.  "Look… I just want you to know, I'm only from a potential future in relation to your current temporal experience.  Nothing is set in stone.  I'm Brainiac 7."
        He peels the mask off.  He's… human?  Something about the face.  Lyle's faint cherubicness.  But his hair is gold, and his eyes are emerald green, and something about the cant of the mouth.
        "I'm Lyl Dox.  I'm your son."

Invisible Kid has posed:
        To paraphrase the old Zen koan: what is the sound of one mind snapping?
        Lyle makes a grab for a nearby lab table to steady himself, misses, and collapses onto his backside on the floor.  Eyes open wide.  Mouth too.  Nothing comes out but an incoherent squeak.
        He sits up a little, and stares at Brainy's ring in his hand.  Looks back up at the impossible young man.  Glances at the uniform crumpled on the floor.  "Dox… h-his son too?"

Brainiac 5 has posed:
        And then the kid—Lyl—is there, picking Lyle back up.
        "Yeah.  You know how it is.  You decided to be a woman for a few years, things happen…."  He gives an admittedly weak smile.  "Kidding.  Brainy-dad cooked me up in the lab, by combining your genetic templates."
        He looks at the uniform on the floor, and his expression softens.  And then he shakes his head… and his skin turns green.  Albeit a lighter shade than Brainy's.  "I can't turn invisible like you.  But I can change the pigmentation of my skin at will."  It turns back to a human shade.
        "I'll answer whatever questions you have."

Invisible Kid has posed:
        Lyle blinks.  "Well, now I know what it's like to be on the other end of my sense of humor," he says in something approaching a normal voice, though still rather a ways away yet.  "And you may be answering for quite a while."  He looks back down at the uniform.  "Let's start with the one I'm most afraid to ask.  What happened to Querl?"

Brainiac 5 has posed:
        That makes Lyl blink, slowly.  "I don't know.  He told me that you and I rescued him—"  He pinches the bridge of his nose, "Before Stargrave could kill him.  This isn't right.  He never talked about what happened during the fight with the Consortium—"
        He sighs.  "Stargrave is Querl Dox from an alternate universe, sometimes called the Anti-Matter Universe or the Dark Mirror Universe.  In that universe, Superman was Ultraman, the galaxy's most notorious warlord and criminal.  And Brainiac 5 is Stargrave, the Architect of Destruction.  And the Legion of Super-Heroes is the Consortium, a group of ambitious and powerful young people with super-powers who arose to rule the galaxy with an iron hand.  The Legion's fought them several times."

Invisible Kid has posed:
        "So he's not d…."  Nope.  Can't say it.  Not that.  "He may be all right."  That, Lyle can say, and just the bare possibility means he can think again.  He drops heavily onto a lab stool, hunched over a bit, deep in thought.
        "All right.  Two things immediately come to mind from the limited data at hand.  One," Lyle begins, counting off on his fingers, "since you continue to exist and haven't disappeared in a temporal paradox, it's not too late to save my… our Brainy.  And two, it appears that the Lyle in that universe had a thing with Stargrave, and must have done something to him to really push him to extremes.  He wanted to destroy my… the other me's brain, and even though he was talked out of it, he still did something awful.  What I'd like to know is: what did I… what did the other Lyle do?  Any weakness we can get our hands on is important."
        Lyle looks up, almost smiling, and shakes his head.  "My… our son," he says, apropos of nothing.  "Wow.  That's… going to take some getting used to."

Brainiac 5 has posed:
        "Time Fractal theory," Lyl says.  "Time isn't a linear line, it's more like a growing crystal.  Since our branches of the fractal are still in close proximity and haven't diverged overmuch, my presence here is still stable."  He leans in.
        "Your… relationship is not going to be a smooth one," Lyl says, as he rests his forearms on the table.  "Remember though, the things I mention here only happened in my timeline, there's no guarantee it'll be like that for you.  When Cosmic Boy—Uncle Rokk—becomes president of the United Planets, he tapped you to run UP Intelligence.  Brainy-Dad did NOT want you to do it—even though he was stepping down to run the Time Institute at the same time.  So he didn't speak to you… for three years.  You'd call him sometimes, and leave messages."
        "Eventually, there was a… uh, situation?  Situation.  And Cosmic Boy sent you at the head of the Infiltrators and the Science Police to arrest him.  He figured you were the only one who could get to him.  And when you brought him out, he picked up this little cube and played every message you left him, in front of Cosmic Boy, and Trudy Trusoe, and the Science Police, and your hand-picked Infiltrators…."  Lyl grins—it's your grin, really.  "Every single 'Please call me', every single 'I love you'.  And then he just smirked at you and held his wrists out for the cuffs."
        "Rokk was stone-faced until he got to his ship.  And then he… I'd never heard him laugh like that.  For hours."

Invisible Kid has posed:
        Lyle takes a moment to absorb that.  "Well," he finally says, "I never thought our relationship would be smooth sailing.  I can't really say any of that sounds impossible."  He adds, with that grin identical to Lyl's, "Or even improbable."
        Then Lyle sits up straighter, with a business-like air.  "Okay.  Let me ask this—the weapon this Stargrave used—what do you know about it?  Is there any reason it should have no effect on Brainy's clothes and ring?"

Brainiac 5 has posed:
        Lyl's expression grows somber again.
        "Invisible Dad, Stargrave has all of Brainy-Dad's intellect and none of his conscience.  He's an arrogant, greedy, sadistic mass-murderer.  Whatever my past experiences with him are, he could've tinkered together a new weapon for fun on his way to this era."
        Then he looks down, and says, "A ray that discorporates organic matter into component molecules?  Something that disintegrates a person on a temporal or dimensional level?"  …Could Evil Brainy invent a gun that shoots you right in the reality?  Yes.
        "I don't know.  I'm going to need time to study this and figure it out…."  He looks down.  "I'd tell you 'You may have to accept that he's dead' but you won't, will you?"
        "You never did let slip why you cared about him so much.  I mean I love Brainy-Dad but he can be so… difficult when he gets going."  Then Lyl shakes his head and gets up, before he begins to rummage through his father's tools.  "Me, I prefer being in the field to labwork.  I'm a little bit of an adrenaline junkie.  I get it from you."

Invisible Kid has posed:
        "No, I won't accept that until and unless I have to," Lyle says.  "As for why… partly it's the challenge.  Partly it's that he's the only man who understands me on my level, that I don't have to slow myself down for."  There's that grin again.  "Mostly it's that brains are sexy."
        He watches what Lyl gets into, to get some idea what he's up to.  "And I'd still like to know what the other me did to the other Querl."

Brainiac 5 has posed:
        "Honestly?" Lyl says, as he begins to assemble a scanner using equipment from Brainy's workbench, "Every single member of the Consortium I've ever met are just… evil incarnate.  He may not have done anything at all.  But he probably did SOMETHING.  I sincerely hope you never find out."
        "…We really need to find him, though.  Because if he's here… that means he's going to bring the Consortium… and Warworld along for the ride.  And he and Cosmic Lord may be constantly struggling for control of the group, but they will pick Earth clean on their way through to wherever they're going."

Invisible Kid has posed:
        "Well, hm."  Lyle leans back with that slightly glazed "I'm thinking" look on his face.  "Well, here.  He's got Brainy's force shield.  I didn't happen to notice, but I'd be willing to bet they have flight rings.  And if physics in their universe is the same as physics in ours, I bet they're pretty similar to ours.  And I've learned a lot about tracking rings that aren't quite the same as ours since the temporal mess that got us here messed with the rings."
        He's already reaching for the nearest omnicom and pulling up the ship's scanners.  "So if they use flight rings, I bet we can track him.  Please tell me they do."

Brainiac 5 has posed:
        "Brain stem implants with a kill switch if they betray the Consortium," Lyl says, as he finishes putting together his scanner.  "Everything they do is cruel."

Invisible Kid has posed:
        "That's still something reachable, and readable, by broadcast," Lyle says.  "Cruel, sure, but also potentially trackable.  The Consortium must be able to remotely read them without triggering them."

Brainiac 5 has posed:
        "That's not a bad idea," Lyl says, snapping his fingers.  "But in order to track it, I need to know how it works.  Give me a few hours to tinker."  He looks up, and says, "…But I think maybe you should go talk to the others, first.  Don't worry, I'm not going anywhere, Invisible Dad.  Go—"