Owner	Pose
Polar Boy	<< Brainiac, >> Polar Boy calls through his comm. << There's a malfunction on the bridge. >> The third shift has been quiet. But a quick scan of the computer systems indicates, sure enough, that there's a component down. Sure, it just serves as the Legion's version of streaming Muzak, but it's malfunctioning nonetheless. << Any help would be appreciated. I don't know if this is going to be the start of a cascade failure or something else that's way over my head. >> On the bridge, Brek looks at the frozen console labeled 'myTunes'. He sighs to himself.
Brainiac 5	Brainy, who had just finished packing the last of his bags, looks up, and sighs. He adjusts his black, comfortably-fitting ship-suit, and makes his way to the bridge. "What is it, Brek?" He asks, as he walks onto the bridge, and then pauses. He shuts his jaw with a snap. "Your sense of humor leaves me cold."
Polar Boy	"Oh, does it?" Brek replies, turning to look at Brainy over his shoulder. "Does it? Well, y--" He pauses, frowning. "You--you're a ..." He sighs again. "Damn it. I don't have anything witty to say." Brek turns to face Brainiac. "Look. Obviously I lied to you. But I wanted to have a chance to ask you, one last time. Why are you doing this? How can you just leave us? And ..." He looks down, breathing deeply, before he finishes his question. "How dare you give up something that ... some of us ... have fought so hard to be a part of, to prove we belong, to try to live up to your standards?"
Brainiac 5	Brainy furrows his brow. "Why does my choosing to leave devalue the Legion? Why do you think it reflects poorly on you?" He crosses his arms, and actually sits on the edge of a console. "I seldom say this, but I genuinely do not understand."
Polar Boy	"No, I don't think you do. Honestly, I didn't expect you to." Brek clenches his ice hand hard enough that it begins to crack throughout his palm. "So many of us--legionnaires, substitutes, myriad idolizers throughout the galaxy--want /desperately/ to be in a position where we can make a difference. Where we can help the dream not only come true but /blossom/." He sets his jaw and shakes his head quickly. "Leaving feels like a rejection of that ideal. Of all of us trying to emulate you. We're just jokes, right?" "We're just jokes, and we should give up. You gave up, and you made it. You've been a big part of the Legion for so long now. So you should know better." Brek stares at Brainiac, tears welling in his eyes. "If that's so--why shouldn't I walk away, too?"
Brainiac 5	Brainy looks up, and then tilts his head at Brek. "Do you know why I killed - tried to kill COMPUTO, Brek?" He straightens back up. "It's because after all of this -- I was angry. I was furious. And in that moment, I was *homicidal*, toward my own creation." "And no one seems to care." He runs his hand through his hair. "Well, I care. I took the same oath as you, I follow the same bylaws as you. I don't get special exemptions by dint of being *me*."
Polar Boy	Brek nods several times. "Yes. You've said as much. And, believe it or not, I heard you each time. It was a difficult choice. An impossible one. But you did it to save us all. And COMPUTO's not gone--not really." He sighs, flexing his hand and letting his cold-generation powers reform it where it's been cracked. "As far as I can tell, the oath's hasn't actually been violated. Intent and execution being two different things and all. So you're interpreting the Legion bylaws specifically in a way that works against you. Otherwise, I want the chance to interpret them liberally, too, in a way that works /for/ all of those who almost made the team but fell short somehow."
Brainiac 5	"This is not about you or your worthiness." Brainy says. "It's about me, and my lack of it." "I haven't been able to get us home. I haven't been able to achieve anything. A nobody, an intellectual PEON managed to hack into security systems I set up and let loose something that imperiled the entire galaxy. I have *lost my way*, Brek. And I don't know if I can find it again."
Polar Boy	"Oh, woe is /you/!" Brek blurts out. "You think that's failure? You think that's being lost? Well, brother, let me tell you something--that's being a /hero/. Did the legend of Superman teach you nothing?" He laughs, mirthlessly, throwing his hands up in the air and walking around in a circle. "It's not a lack of success that makes you a failure. It's /not trying/. A hero /tries/, Brainy. Even when all hope is lost. Sprock, maybe it's when all hope is lost that the real hero comes out." Brek pauses, anger flashing across his face. "But you don't think about that. No, instead you're going to make this situation all about /you/. Well, I'm just not willing to accept that." He storms toward the door leading back to the main cruiser corridor.
Brainiac 5	Brainy suddenly holds out one hand, and reaches out with his force-field to grab hold of Polar Boy. He begins, with agonizing slowness, to drag him back towards him. His expression has gone downright dark. "Brek."
Polar Boy	Futilely, Polar Boy struggles against the force field, barely able to move an inch inside the field, although the air around him begins to frost in response to his struggles. "Ghkhh," he grunts. "Don't--don't you dare--"
Brainiac 5	Brainy puuuuuuuullllls Brek back, and turns him around to face him. "Name one Legionnaire who has held themselves to a higher standard than me. Name. One. I have to deal consistently with the expectation of my comrades that I will succeed, along with the accusations that I am *difficult*, along with the consistent murmur of discontent about my *arrogance*. And *yet*." He leans in. "The Legion's failure to recruit you the first time was a *mistake*. It was the Legion's ignorant error, not your deficiency. And I am *tired* of coddling your *meaningless* inferiority complex. Nod once if you understand this."
Polar Boy	Brek responds first with a slow narrowing of his eyes, only half-visible within his frosty force-field ecosystem. When he speaks, it's as cold as the air. "I have nothing to say to those who have abandoned the Legion."
Brainiac 5	Brainy lets Brek go, and then this time, it's him who walks out.