Owner	Pose
Booster Gold	Booster loves flying. It's the best bit about being a superhero. No subways, no hovercars, no having to take a cab or bum a ride. Just the open winds, the city laid out in front of him, and anywhere to go he wishes. Granted, his flying needs some /work/-- his yaw is all over the place and he brakes like he's flying a pregnant cow. But mostly, he just looks very cool, a glimmering blur of gold and blue overhead. "Look, honey! It's Green Lantern!" someone says, pointing skywards. Booster mutters an oath and finds somewhere else to fly-- a nearby public park, where he keeps making a lazy loop over the same general area, hoping people will pay attention to him. "Man, Skeets, why are the parks so empty?" Booster asks his drone and faithful comrade. "There's no one here to appreciate how great I look!" <<I'm sorry, sir! I'll admire you, if it helps! Maybe we can get some candids for the YouTube channel?>> Skeets suggests, keeping easy pace with Booster and recording him with a blinking red light next to the drone's single 'eye'. "Hey, sure! And some pictures for the next autograph sesh. How's this?" Booster asks, pausing in midair and striking a heroic, broad-chested pose.
Brainiac 5	<<FLIGHT RING SIGNAL LOCATED - FREQUENCY 312 KKZ.6295438>> "Thank you, K.O.K.O. - I've located the source of the signal. I'll go down and check it out." There is a pinprick of blue light behind Booster -- Skeets would probably notice it first, which expands outward into a blue circle in midair, with an odd, electrical sizzle and the smell of ozone, and a shadowy figure appears in the vortex and steps out of it. It's a young man. Green. Like, he's really green. Except for his hair, which is blond. And he's holding up a palm-top computer of some sort, like a really whiz smartphone, which he has aimed at Booster. He looks very puzzled. Then he looks up, his brow furrowed. "Who are you?"
Booster Gold	"AAAAUGH!" Booster screams in surprise. Branaic seems to have caught up with Booster while he's not paying attention, and the Golden Hero of Tomorrow loses his stabilization as his concentration falters. He dips fifteen feet and his yaw goes sideways, arms flailing reflexively before he remembers the Legion Ring and focuses himself on not hitting the ground. <<Mister Booster! Are you okay?>> Skeets asks, flicking quickly down to Booster's level. "Sheesh. I'm fine, Skeets, I just got /surprised/," Booster huffs, trying to regain his composure. He looks up at Braniac, clearly miffed at how easily he was surprised. "Me? Who am I? Who am -I-?! Tell him, Skeets!" <<This is BOOSTER GOLD!>> Skeets proclaims, in a loud, tinny voice. It sounds like a recording for an advertisement. <<A famous athlete from the 24th Century, Booster Gold has taken on a mission of peace to become one of the GREAT HEROES of Earth! Equipped with highly advanced technology by the residents of Gotham, BOOSTER GOLD is a beacon of peace, prosperity, and the future of humanity!>> Booster floats with a 'chest out, hands on hips' pose normally reserved for the covers of comic books, trying to look modest and powerful all at once.
Brainiac 5	Brainiac 5 scowls again. "Booster Gold." He checks something on his whiz palmtop. "A minor ally of the legendary genius crimefighter, the Blue Beetle, and later a minor mentor of the Blue Beetle's protege, Jaime Reyes, bearer of the Scarab War Machine, hero of the known galaxy." Then he looks up, and says, "That flight ring. Where did you get that flight ring!?" Booster may now see that the green man is wearing one exactly like it. Or maybe Skeets sees it. But he is. And he's floating closer. "Chronometric scan indicates you ARE a time traveler..."
Brainiac 5	A moment later, he says, "That ring that you're wearing is the property of the Legion of Super-Heroes. Where did you find it? Who gave it to you?" Then he looks down at his computer again. "Chronometric emnanation of that ring is all wrong, it's showing it as more than four hundred years old -- that can't be right--"
Booster Gold	Booster stares at Branaic, utterly dumbfounded. "Wha-- MINOR Ally? I'm Blue Beetle's best friend!" he says, shooting up to Braniac's level and jabbing a thumb towards his broad golden breastplate. "Me and BB, we're thick as thieves-- and there ain't nothing MINOR about us! I'm TWICE the legend he is!" Booster tells Braniac. "And I dunno nothin' about this ... Jaime kid, but if he's the hero of the galaxy, it's almost totally definitely because of MY amazing mentorship skills. Which are amazing!" "And the ring came from Captain Nunya," Booster tells Braniac, putting his hand behind his back. "As in, Captain Nunya Business." <<Sir! I'm detecting chronometric particles as well,>> Skeets tells Booster. <<I believe this individual is the hero known as Braniac 5!>> Booster balks and tenses. "Braniac?!" he yelps, zipping backwards. "G-get away from me, Braniac! Or I'll kick your... ass!" he says, charging his photon blasters in panic.
Brainiac 5	Brainiac 5 isn't having it. "This grandstanding is getting us nowhere. That ring was the property of one of my friends, and I demand to know where you got it--" And then he registers that Booster is charging up his weapons and there's a shimmer in the air in front of him, that coalesces into an energy field around him... which shapes itself into a giant hand, reaching toward Booster, fingers splayed in a grabbing motion. Or a squashing motion. "You WILL turn over that ring to me!" He says, as he advances. "And you WILL tell me where you got it!" There is an odd emotion on the face of the cerebral alien--something close to sorrow. "If you stole it from one of my friends, I swear I'll--" The hand lunges forward, trying to make a grab at Booster.
Booster Gold	"Ack!" Booster rebuts, and discharges his photon cannons at the disembodied hands. Crude, older technology compared to Braniac's day; as outdated as an old muzzleloader would seem to a modern soldier. But there's still plenty of juice behind it, and he gives Braniac's grasping hand both barrels, up close. "You're not the boss of me!" Booster yelps, zipping backwards thirty feet, then drunkenly lurching down and to the right. For a human, he's got a surprisingly good grasp of movement on three axis of motion, and flings two more photonic bursts at Braniac while he's on the fly. He's nimble, too, in a way the Ring responds to almost intuitively, and just to show he's not a distance fighter, he abruptly reverses course and flies right at Braniac with his right fist cocked back for a heck of a cross punch!
Brainiac 5	The hand wavers, and snaps back -- when Booster's photon blasts lance at Brainiac 5, that shimmer appears again, and they splash off it, before he turns, and lashes out with it again, this time that energy snaps out like a pseudopod and smashes a tree--and then Booster hits him in the jaw, and he spins, and hits the dirt. When he pushes himself up, there's green blood trickling from a busted lip, and his green eyes burn with fury. "That ring could mean one of my teammates is dead--or worse. How dare you sully it, you... ignoramus nobody!" This time that force-field forms into a pincer claw, shooting out at Booster's leg.
Booster Gold	It's good timing-- the claw grabs Booster below the knee and he hits the ground, too, mid-charge at Braniac. He leaps skywards, trying to get away, but the construct is clamping his leg firmly. A faint, shimmering forcefield gleams and sparks-- an inertial impact field. Crude technology even by the 24th century, used to protect asteroid miners from low-mass impacts. The field collapses and Booster starts pouring photon blasts into the pincer, looking desperate. "You can't prove that! Man, I don't even KNOW you!" Booster yelps, resorting to punching the energy construct. To his credit, Booster has a haymaker punch that could knock a car on its side.
Brainiac 5	The force-field is powerful stuff, thirty-first century technology designed by the thirty-first century's most advanced genius. But he has to concentrate on it to maintain it, and right now he's a little stunned. So it shimmers, and then it snaps back, before Brainiac 5 gets back to his feet, and is ready to attack again. "And I don't know you." He says. "But those rings are only given to members of the Legion of Super-Heroes, and *every one of them* has passed through my hands to be customized for an individual Legionnaire's needs. Every one of them represents a FRIEND of mine!" Then he drops his head, and says, "I don't want to fight. Please... just give it back. Don't make me take it from you."
Booster Gold	Booster falls on his butt when the pincer vanishes, and his forcefield resumes just long enough to give him room to dodge from it again. He's about to give Booster the old Gotham High Flying Elbow, but the Braniac's tone of emotional appeal stymies him, and Booster stumbles twice in a hopskip and stops. "It's /mine/," Booster tells Braniac, with wary defensiveness. "I got it in the 24th century. It was given to me there," he lies. "I didn't take it off anyone's body or nothin' like that." "...fer the big bad Braniac, you sure sound a lot like a little kid," Booster scowls, even though he's /maybe/ all of twenty-two.
Brainiac 5	Brainiac 5 doesn't look a whole heck of a lot older. He sits, and says, "I'm NOT Brainiac 1. I'm Brainiac FIVE, his descendant, and I'm from the thirty-first century." He looks up, and says, "If I wanted to fly around in a skull-ship bottling cities, I would be. But that's insane. There's no point to having a twelfth-level intellect unless you're using it to make the universe a better place." And then he says, "If you acquired that ring in the twenty-fourth century than... that means at least one of us doesn't make it home. Could I have failed?" He says, before he clenches his fist. "...I *failed*."
Booster Gold	Booster and Braniac exchange a long look. "Buddy. Who the hell -ARE- you?" Booster demands, goggling a bit. "I feel like I tuned into the middle of a reality TV soap and you're in the confessional booth right after they start delivering the truth serum. Sheesh, man, you're supposed to be smart-- maybe one of your buddies got home /another way/?" Booster suddenly looks extremely uncomfortable at Braniac's presence. Not because of the tech or the intelligence... but because he's from Booster's subjective future. Mentally, Booster crosses his fingers and hopes that the records from the 24th century to Braniac's time were pillaged like they were during the Maple Syrup wars of the 2200s.
Brainiac 5	"I told you. I am Brainiac 5. I'm a member of the Legion of Super-Heroes from the 31st century and I designed--" He pauses, "I am one of the two designers of the ring you're wearing. It's a sophisticated piece of thirty-first century technology that generates an anti-gravity field that can be mentally controlled by the wearer. It also contains a quantum communicator that's connected -- when it's working correctly -- to every other Flight Ring within several light years." "Those rings are given to members of the Legion when they're inducted, and one of us would never willingly give it up. It's--it's the symbol of being part of a family." "I don't know much noteworthy about a Booster Gold. And I'm not going to get into some childish slap-fight." He gets to his feet, and brushes his uniform off. "But that ring is the property of the Legion. So I'm asking you--if you are a super-hero, please... return it to its rightful owners. Worst case, it'll need to stand in at a funeral."
Booster Gold	Booster licks his lips, suddenly nervous. He exchanges a glance with Skeets that can only be described as mutually meaningful. Which is impressive for the little AI, which is surprisingly emotive for something with no visible eyes, facial features, or limbs. "Look, Brainy... I'll level with you," Booster says, quietly. "And this-- seriously, this canNOT leave the two of us." He brushes his hand over his mouth, tugging down on his chin and sucking air through his teeth. "I got it in a museum, okay? In the future. It was on display with a bunch of other stuff. Show 'im, Skeets." The gold-plated drone flickers a hologram near Braniac's face-- an image of the Legion Ring, on a pedastal. The placard is written in High Quebecois, an amalgam of English and Canadian French common in Booster's time. -Signet Ring: Legion of Heroes. Source: Late 21st Century.- Booster holds his hand up, the ring on his hand precisely matching the hologram before it dissipates. "This was in a museum for half a century. And I think the League had it for a long time before that. I know it means a lot to you /now/, but-- this was old and dusty when I got it," Booster tells Braniac.
Brainiac 5	Brainiac 5 looks down, and then he stands up. "Did the exhibit say anything about WHO it belonged to?" He asks. "I know you don't understand," He says. "But each of those rings represents somebody special, someone exceptional. Haven't you ever met someone like that? Somebody who you'd give anything for, do anything to protect?" "I don't usually wax emotional like this. And I'm not inclined to beg." He shakes his head, and then looks up, his gaze hardening. "And if it was sitting for four hundred years, then it represents a mystery--one I need to solve. So let me give you an ultimatum. You can either help me, or this ends in pointless violence. As for the ring -- I could wire your suit with the same technology in an hour. And improve the recharge rate on that... primitive power pack you're wearing. Is that a micrometeorite screen?"
Booster Gold	Booster shifts uneasily. Braniac's clearly got one up on him in the brains department, and the big jock has the feeling that he's being outmaneuvered by the sort of kid he'd pelt with apples during lunch. "I... I guess I can help you," he concedes with a mumble, unwittingly boxed into an either/or by Braniac. "I mean at least figure out ... something. But I don't want you messing with my suit, it's from the way future and it's, like, impossible to repair," he tells the boy, forgetting that the other fellow is both a 12th-level intellect and even /furthur/ from the future.
Brainiac 5	"Thank you." Brainiac 5 says. Then he mutters, "...And since you've agreed to help me, I can't in good conscience leave you grounded. That suit is primitive, and cobbled together. In my era, thirty-first century day to day wear is more advanced and more complex. And that ring? That makes the rest of what you're wearing look like hopeless junk." He puts his hand on his hip, and looks away. "Thank you--" He says, "For agreeing to help me. I suppose a man like the Blue Beetle wouldn't associate with a nobody."
Booster Gold	"Hey, it's not /junk/," Booster snaps, as Braniac hits his ego. "This stuff's cutting edge!" he protests. Again, lying-- and badly. "They wouldn't have sent me back in time to be a hero if they gave me a bunch of worthless gear, y'know!" It doesn't take a Braniac to start to see some of the bare threads in Booster's story. His gear is antique even by the 24th century, the sort of equipment that would have been widespread by his day and used mostly for deep space mining. Advanced technology for 2200 AD, maybe. Commonplace as a cell phone in the 21st century, by his reckoning.
Brainiac 5	That makes Brainiac 5 sigh. "I am a 12th-level intellect, Booster Gold. Even without an omnicom to scan your suit I could see that you're not telling me the truth." Then he murmurs, "While you have that ring," He taps his own, "I want you to think about something -- whoever owned that ring was part of a family, part of a group of people who fought together, laughed together... and who loved one another like brothers and sisters." For a moment, he closes his mouth tightly, and then he huffs out a sigh and then seems to shake something off.
Booster Gold	Booster pales at Braniac's accusation, stumbling backwards a few paces. "You-- you don't know! You don't know nothin', buddy!" he tells the fellow, eyes going wide. "I ain't some hack off the street-- I'm BOOSTER GOLD," he says, jabbing a thumb at his breastplate. "Me and Ted, someday we're gonna OWN this city. Maybe the whole coast! We'll be rich and respected and-- and-- and you don't know nothin'!" "C'mon Skeets!" Booster tells the drone, and leaps skywards with assistance from the Flight Ring.
Brainiac 5	Brainiac 5 turns away, and says, after a moment, "K.O.K.O., please open a gateway. I need to go home. I suddenly find myself more than a little tired." He looks up at the sky, and then at the blue portal that opens in front of him. And then he taps his ring, and says into it, "This isn't over, Booster Gold -- one other thing. As long as you wear that ring, I can track you wherever you go. I'll come looking for you, soon."
Booster Gold	Booster yelps as the ring starts squawking at him, and out of reflex, slaps his own hand. It does absolutely nothing but make him look stupid. He scowls at the ring mightily. "Fine! Perv on me all you want, buddy-- just don't be shocked when you come calling and the spaceship is a-rockin'!"
Brainiac 5	The ring crackles, and Brainiac 5's response comes through. "Somehow I am not at all concerned about that." Then it goes dead.