LOS:Broken Gears Chp7

Chapter 7

Working, working, working. Little sleep and little food. Mechanic body forming on the slab. Pushing through exhaustion, ignoring it’s existence. As the days go by the boy’s mind grows weaker and further away.

Yet, there is always an image in the boy’s mind. Another boy, his best friend. Dark skin, dreaded hair, smiling and laughing. He is the boy’s anchor.

“Control… Control…”

Their heroes are his tools. He shall severe the anchor.

“Justice League, destroy him.”

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Brainy bolted awake in the bed, struggling to calm his breathing. Everything seemed to dark, unfocused and surreal. Nothing seemed to be really there. Everything real and tangible seemed to be back in the dream. The echo of a memory that wasn’t even his.

He unsteadily stood on the bed, walking off of it at the same time he nearly fell. He didn’t even notice the person he nearly tripped over.

“Brainy?”

The pain had felt feel. The exhaustion, the desire for everything to fade away was almost as strong as the will to keep struggling coupled with the feeling of accomplishment and excitement at the idea of revenge and completion of a long delayed goal. Two minds competing for the same space and himself, trapped with them as an observer.

“Brainy?”

Dizziness began to take over, his head feeling much heavier then normal. He felt like he was going to be sick.

“Brainy, are you alright?”

In search of the restroom, his eyes landed on the mirror in the corner. The image wasn’t his. It was bigger, stood straighter, had lighter green imitation skin, different armor and empty white eyes but they had the matching symbols on their foreheads. If he didn’t destroy this thing, it would destroy him.

“Brainy!”

Brainy blinked and turned to the speaker, who was standing next to him with a look that he hated to see on anyone’s face, particularly this person’s.

“Clark?”

“Brainy, are you alright? You were muttering to yourself,” said Clark.

“I was?” asked Brainy. He had forgotten he had a voice in his daze.

“Something about control,” said Clark.

Brainy leaned against the wall and avoided looking in the direction of the mirror. There was no point in denying it.

“I dreamt about Gear.”

Clark moved so he was leaning against the wall next to Brainy, careful not to touch him. He wasn’t sure how he would react to it at the moment.

“How did your ancestor know Gear?”

“He had hurt Gear pretty badly,” answered Brainy softly, though what he said next was even softer. “He had hurt you too, many times.”

Though Clark had been surprised by this, having assumed Brainy’s ancestor had been some sort of ancient hero like himself, he didn’t question it. He should have known by the way people avoided really talking about him and never by name. It was always the ‘ancestor’. This was the first time he could recall anyone calling this ancestor by gender.

Clark’s silence was eating away at Brainy. He didn’t know how Clark would take the news that his ancestor wasn’t a good person and had, in fact, hurt heroes. Surely Clark would realize that he had been a villain, would question the things he had done. Then Clark would begin to hate him, like he had predicted when he learned the truth.

It was taking all of Brainy’s resolve not to cry. He knew this was going to happen. It would be pointless to mourn over the relationship he had with Clark. Whatever that relationship was, what he really wanted would always be out of his reach.

“I guess I’ll just have to deal with it when it happens,” said Clark.

Brainy looked at Clark in wonder.

Clark smiled at Brainy as if he thought he had said something funny.

“Did you seriously think I’d reject you because of something your ancestor did?”

Knowing full well that Clark didn’t know the whole truth, the extent to which his ancestor had harmed the world, his words soothed Brainy. They were what he wanted to hear when he first escaped Colu, when he joined the legion, whenever people heard the name ‘Brainiac’ and made that knowing face. And as much relief Brainy felt in that moment, the more dread built in him for the future. As forgiving as Clark was, there was no way he could be that forgiving once he knew the entire truth.

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Brainy had locked himself in a dome similar looking to the one he had placed himself in during his planet’s alignment, only it was made of glass. Brainy just sat, unmoving, in the middle with his legs brought up to his chest and his chin upon them. He kept his back to Clark, now Superman, no matter what angle Superman tried to look at him through. Brainy couldn’t seem to hear Superman, no matter how much he shouted or pounded against the dome that wouldn’t break.

Someone tapped Superman on the shoulder, forcing him to turn away from the dome. It was the girl from the party with the two pink arrows on her wrist. She raised her hand with the arrows still tied on her wrist and opened her fist. Above her open palm was a small gear that looked like a miniature of the one that nearly crushed Brainy.

She began to sing;

“Time is present.

Time is past.

Time shall never ever last.

Remember me when you wake.

The past is the path you must take.”

The gear disintegrated into dust into the girl’s hand and Superman could hear, and feel the force that broke the dome behind him and it filled him with fear.

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Clark woke up feeling as though he had just watched a movie in which the hero had just been given a mission from supernatural forces. He couldn’t think of such a movie at the time, but he was sure there was one like it out there.

It took Clark a moment to realize that the ceiling he was looking at wasn’t his own. The only way he could tell was that it was missing the hole he accidentally made with his shoe the first time the alarm went off. Boy, was that was embarrassing explaining that to the others.

He sat up and looked around, surprised to find that Brainy was no longer anywhere in the room. He quickly got dressed in his super suit and went looking for him.

When Superman found Brainy in his lab, he was mildly surprised to see it all cleaned up, having forgotten how much of a mess it had been. He began to have a funny feeling in his stomach when he saw Brainy at his workbench with his back to him like in the dream.

“Good morning. How long have you been awake?”

“A while,” stated Brainy, continuing on his project.

“How long have you been in here?”

“A while.”

“How long is a while?”

“A while.”

If it had been anyone but Brainy, Superman would have thought they were just repeating the same answer over and over again to annoy him. He noticed his chair was still where he had left it and sat in it next to Brainy.

“You do know that I’ll just keep bothering you until I get a straight answer.”

Brainy didn’t pause in his work as he remained silent for a moment.

“I’ve been in here pretty much since you asleep.”

This surprised Superman.

“I thought you agreed to go back to sleep.”

“I agreed to try. I never said for how long,” said Brainy.

There was no arguing that and Superman began to feel bad about hovering over Brainy constantly. Brainy didn’t need a babysitter to annoy him at every turn, demanding to be informed about every little thing. Brainy needed his own space.

“You’re right… Listen, I’m going to go get some breakfast. Want to come?”

“No thank you,” said Brainy.

“Okay, but you know I’m here for you whenever you want to talk, right?” asked Superman.

Brainy paused and looked at Superman with a sad smile. His eyes had gotten darker again.

“I know.”

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“You look like shit,” commented Lightning Lad as Superman joined him and the others at the breakfast table.

Saturn Girl rolled her eyes.

“What’s wrong?”

Superman poked at his eggs.

“Every time I think I’ve made some progress with Brainy, something happens that ruins everything. Yesterday I thought he was feeling better. He was smiling, teasing me and his eyes were almost back to normal. He has a nightmare about this stupid Gear and it starts all over again. I don’t know what to do.”

Phantom Girl couldn’t help but smirk.

“And how do you know that Brainy had a nightmare?”

Superman blushed redder then his cape and found himself unable to speak. Luckily Saturn Girl came to his rescue.

“That’s not the point. It seems lie Brainy’s eye color changes in accordance to what he is feeling which seems to becoming more and more unstable,” said Saturn Girl. “There may not be a way to reverse it.”

“And we can’t let the little guy go on missions anymore,” said Bouncing Boy looking more worried then ever before. “He could freeze up again and get hurt.”

“What are you saying?” demanded Lightning Lad, standing up. “That we kick Brainy out of the legion?”

“I’m not saying that,” protested Bouncing Boy.

“Even so I don’t think he would want to stay if we keep him on the sidelines,” commented Timber Wolf. “He’s the kind that doesn’t like being a burden.”

“He’s not a burden,” protested all three Triplicate Girls.

“To us he’s not, but in his eyes he’d probably feel like dead weight if he got held back from missions because we worry about him,” said Saturn Girl.

Lightning Lad sighed and sat back down.

“It would be like the beginning all over again when everyone just wanted to stick him in the labs because he’s the youngest here.”

“There has to be some way to get him back to his normal grouchy self,” said Phantom Girl.

“We don’t know enough about it. Brainy had always just let it go away on it’s own before,” commented Saturn Girl.

“But that never took more then a day before. This could be permanent,” said Bouncing Boy.

Superman remembered his dream.

“This all started with Gear right?”

“Well the gear that nearly crushed him to death, yes,” said Lightning Lad.

“I meant Gear the person,” said Superman. “Every time he seems to get worse it seems to be because of him.”

“What are you talking about? He’s been dead for-” started Lightning Lad.

“That’s the point. No one knows how Gear died anymore. Brainy seems to be worried about what happens-about what happened to him. Also, I think Brainy feels guilty about what his ancestor did to Gear,” said Superman.

“Brainy told you about him?” questioned Saturn Girl.

“Only that he had hurt people,” said Superman.

“That’s all fine and dandy Clarky, but what’s your point?” asked Bouncing Boy.

“You guys have time travel,” exclaimed Superman. “Why not just go to the past and let Brainy see Gear?”

“Brilliant,” exclaimed Lightning Lad.

“No way,” protested Saturn Girl.

“Can we do that?” questioned Triplicate Girl.

“This can’t be a good idea,” moaned Bouncing Boy.

“How would you even know what time to go to?” asked Phantom Girl.

“You want to show Brainy how Gear dies? I don’t think that will help,” commented Timber Wolf.

“No, just listen,” said Superman. “We’ll go back to a time when Gear is in his prime. We don’t have to interact with him or see how he dies. Just let Brainy see that he’s alright and hopefully that will calm his anxieties.”

“Do you have any idea what we could do to the timeline?” asked Saturn Girl.

“That didn’t seem to matter when you guys came and got me,” said Superman.

“That was different. We needed your help,” said Saturn Girl.

“Well now Brainy needs our help,” said Phantom Girl. “And it’s the only idea we have. I say, we do it.” She raised her hand.

Triplicate Girl immediately followed suit with her three sets of hands. She was followed by a hesitant Bouncing Boy, a confident Lightning Lad and a neutral looking Timber Wolf.

Defeated, Saturn Girl raised her hand as well.

“I hope we don’t do more damage then good.”

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When Superman returned to Brainy’s lab, Brainy was sitting in his chair facing the wall between the entrance and his workbench. In his hands was something that looked like a thick, rounded, light green glass plate. He gazed at it for a while, as if not sure what he wanted to do with it. Then he lifted it up and held it close to his face.

“What’s that?” asked Superman as he approached Brainy.

“A recreation of the front of Gear’s helmet. I was wondering what the world looked like through his eyes,” said Brainy, removing it from his face. He offered it to Superman.

Taking it, Superman held it up to his own face to look through it the way Brainy had done a moment before.

“It’s blurry.”

“To us, yes, but Gear was a person who really needed glasses. His helmet not only served to protect his identity but allowed him to see without worrying about glasses falling off or breaking,” said Brainy, taking back the glass and placing it on the workbench. “Extremely tough glass as well, it would have been very difficult to break.”

“That’s good,” said Superman, wondering where he should begin. “Brainy, I know you’ve been worried about Gear.”

“Do you think it’s odd to worry about someone you’ve never met and died long before you were born?” asked Brainy.

“No, that’s not what I’m trying to say. I’m not even sure of how to say it, but I’ve talked about it with the others and I think we should go to the past and see Gear,” said Superman quickly.

“See Gear?” questioned Brainy slowly as if he wasn’t sure he had heard correctly.

“Yea. Saturn Girl and the others are trying to figure out when would be a good time for us to sneak a visit without them seeing us,” said Superman.

“I already know that,” said Brainy. He opened up the part of his arm that controlled the time bubble and made it appear. When the door opened, he walked inside.

“Brainy, we should wait for the others,” exclaimed Superman.

“I don’t want the others to come. This is personal,” said Brainy. “Are you coming or not?”

Though he was surprised he was welcomed along on something Brainy deemed personal, Bouncing Boy’s words entered Superman’s mind. He shook them off and joined Brainy in the time bubble.