LoS: Missing Pieces Chp 12

Sitting in the lab, Brainiac Five was working on yet another part for that damned cruiser that really ought to just be shot out of its misery when he got the feeling that someone was watching him. He acted like he was ignoring it, ran his fingers through his buzz cut hair in mock frustration and entered some data into his computer.

It didn't take long for Brainiac Five to bring up an image on a screen of a human looking teenaged boy, around the same age as Lightning Lad or Cosmic Boy, sitting at some desk with his head in his hands, staring at the screen as if it was the most interesting thing possible. He obviously hadn't noticed that Brainiac Five hacked into his signal and was watching him back now.

Pretending to give his full attention to his work, Brainiac Five took this time to observe the older boy out of the corner of his eye. He was slightly tanned, with short brown hair that went to his ears, matching brown eyes and was, surprisingly, wearing a lab coat. He also made entertaining expressions when the Coluan did something with the cruiser part that the other boy found impressive – it was almost like he was trying with all his might not to comment or cheer.

At one point it looked like he had been tempted to whistle.

When the part was finished, Brainiac Five finished, he put it aside and wiped his hands clean with a towel. He didn't even bother looking at the screen.

"And who might you be?"

Surprised the boy lifted his head from his hands and tried to look around Brainiac Five to see if there was anyone behind him.

"I'm talking to you, Boy on Screen," Brainiac Five rolled his eyes and looked directly at him.

Eyes widening, the boy fell out of his chair but quickly scrambled back up.

"I-I'm Lyle Norg!"

"And why are you spying on me Lyle Norg?" Brainiac Five asked, though what he really wanted to know was how.

"I'm a scientist," Lyle said quickly, pulling on the collar of his lab coat as if that was proof enough of his claim. "And I was curious about you. Are you really a 12th level?"

Having his honesty questioned by a spy didn't sit well with Brainiac Five. He leaned back in his chair, crossed his arms and raised a hairless brow at the brunet.

"If I was lying about my abilities don't you think Saturn Girl, the mind reader, would have realized that and I wouldn't have been accepted into the Legion?"

An embarrassed flush crossed Lyle's cheeks.

"I hadn't meant to say that you were lying. I just thought that the rumors may have gotten carried away with themselves. But, wow: a twelfth level intelligence. You must be so smug– I mean pleased."

The grin on Lyle's face showed that he really meant what he had said the first time but Brainiac Five chose to ignore it.

"If you're done bothering me, I have other work to do and I don't need a monkey watching me."

"Why? Because you're worried about me imitating you?" Lyle asked, evidently going from the old saying 'monkey see, monkey do'.

"If you had the intelligence for that I wouldn't have let you watch me for as long as I did. I just have no desire to be associated with you," Brainiac Five said before turning off Lyle's spy signal and putting up a firewall to block future transmissions.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

Brainy woke up feeling cold and strangely empty. He curled into himself on the empty bed and closed his eyes.

He stopped having dreams about his time with Lyle ages ago: why would they start up again now?

There was movement in the room behind him and Brainy felt the covers being pulled and tucked more securely around him.

Reopening his eyes, Brainy gazed up at Clark, who was still just in his pajama bottoms and smiling down at him.

"Hey," Clark whispered, bending down to kiss Brainy's forehead. "Good morning."

Allowing this warmth to wash over him, Brainy couldn't help but feel guilty over his dream. He loved Clark so much; why was he dreaming about Lyle?

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

Lyle managed to hack his way into Brainiac Five's lab again, and again and again and refused to tell the Coluan how he had done it.

"If I told you, you'd stop tolerating my presence," Lyle commented absently while munching on a sandwich and typing something on another computer on his end. "What little you tolerate me, anyway."

Brainy came to almost expect Lyle's presence when he came to his lab, even though all he would see of the other boy was his upper torso. He stopped trying to put up firewalls to keep Lyle out and had been surprised when Lyle came to talk to him one day with his screen black.

"You still have bed head or something?" Brainy questioned, and smirked even though he knew Lyle could probably still see him.

The responding laugh sounded strange.

"Oh no, nothing like that. There's just a few bugs in my systems today, but I didn't want you to worry."

Though Brainiac Five wanted to roll his eyes and say that he wouldn't worry over him there was definitely something that told him that there was something wrong other than what Lyle was telling him. He continued his conversation with Lyle but instead of working on his intended project he hacked into his Lyle's signal.

He wasn't surprised to find that the visual was intentionally being blocked and that it was easily remedied.

Turning back to the screen, now able to see Lyle absently work on something that looking like it would be a microscope once he was finished, Brainiac Five's eyes unwittingly widened.

"What happened to you?"

Looking up, Lyle paled when he saw that Brainy was looking straight at him. He dropped his tools, shattering his project and covered his black eye with his non bandaged hand, hiding it behind him.

"I fell."

"Lyle, you're smarter then that."

Whether Brainiac Five meant Lyle was smart enough not to fall or not to use such a lie, neither genius really knew.

Slowly lowering his hand, Lyle brought back his bandaged one to rest on his desk.

"My Dad gets angry sometimes. That's all."

At the time Brainiac Five just nodded, making a mental note to look up information on Mr. Norg once Lyle left for the day.

Putting down his current project, Brainy rubbed his eyes, trying to banish these memories from his mind. Still, he remembered looking up Mr. Norg, finding out he was a Science Police officer of good standing and, to the rest of the world, a good husband and father to his child prodigy son, who excelled in xenochemistry.

If Mr. Norg got angry 'sometimes' he knew there had to be a way to prove it. He had hacked into the Norg house's computers, television and communication system to try to get some evidence but that's when he found out that Lyle practically lived at the labs at the Science Police station.

"Brainy," Lyle called, extending his syllables so he sounded like a child trying to get his mother's attention. "Brainy. Brainy, Brainy, Brainy, Brainy-"

"I told you, I won't be responding to that idiotic nickname of yours!" shouted Brainiac Five, very tempted to send Lyle a small electric shock through their connection.

"Whatever Brainy," Lyle grinned, "Do you mind if I ask you something?"

At this Brainiac Five rolled his eyes.

"You always ask anyway even when I do mind, so ask away."

"What kind of name is 'Brainiac Five' anyway? Don't you know who Brainiac was?" Lyle questioned lightly.

There was silence and when Brainiac Five looked at the monitor again Lyle shivered.

"Hey, I'm sorry, I didn't mean-"

Brainiac Five turned the connection off and fire walled it against Lyle.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

Brainy looked at the old monitor he used to talk to Lyle on. He hadn't used it for anything else since those days, not even when Lyle had joined the Legion, which was the first time he talked to Lyle again after he had asked about his codename.

After that had happened he had been so angry at Lyle; for bringing up his awful connection to Brainiac so naïvely. Every time it seemed like his anger had vanished he'd think of another reason to be angry and continued to block all of Lyle's attempt to hack back into the lab.

Then he had to leave his lab for a mission with the others, and when he came back Lyle had managed to find a way back in and he nearly just turned the screen off but, in reflection, he was thankful he had caught the developing bruise on Lyle's cheek and the near desperation on his face.

That was the day Lyle had finished the invisibility serum and injected it into himself to hide it from his father. He had called Brainy to let him know that he was running away and probably wouldn't be able to talk to him again.

Even though he had still been angry at the time Brainy thought such a possibility was unacceptable. He told Lyle to meet him somewhere and went to pick him up; but since those were the days before flight rings he had run through the city, past the point where he thought he might pass out, nearly falling over when he had reached him.

Lyle had left his home with nothing but the clothes on his back and a duffle bag filled with some notes, a little money and basic supplies to last him on the street.

"For some sort of human genius, you're an idiot. You're coming with me," Brainy had told him and Lyle had followed him, almost like a lost puppy.

It hadn't taken much to convince Cosmic Boy to let Lyle join the Legion – his argument consisted of calling Cosmic Boy different versions of 'stupid' fifteen times before the leader had given in. And even though Brainy had brought Lyle there, he was still angry at him.

The anger turned into a rivalry as Lyle began to contribute to the Legion. Admittedly it was mostly on his part since Lyle wasn't trying to compete with him but soon enough they began to argue constantly. They disagreed and Brainy was still angry at him while Lyle was tired of Brainy being angry for no apparent reason.

After they were forced to stop their rivalry they really did become friends. Even so, Lyle probably never knew how much he came to mean to Brainy.

Pulling at his own hair, Brainy felt like screaming. Why couldn't he stop thinking about Lyle? Why was he haunting him?

With that thought Brainy was hit with the proverbial ton of bricks. He scanned his mind for a calendar and suddenly felt nauseous.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

Superman turned, eyes widening when he saw Phantom Girl with a cigar in her mouth and holding one out to him.

"Relax boy scout, it's chocolate," Phantom Girl said, taking the 'cigar' out of her mouth just long enough to bite the other end.

Taking the offered chocolate cigar, Superman saw that it said 'Congratulations' on its side in frosting.

"What are we celebrating?"

Looking triumphant, Phantom Girl returned to pretending she was smoking.

"After breakfast today Timber Wolf commented that Brainy smelled different."

Feeling like his jaw had unhinged itself, Superman stared at her and nearly dropped the chocolate cigar. He tried to speak but no words came out and he knew he was probably doing a very good impression of a fish.

Her smirk increasing, Phantom Girl made a movement as if getting rid of a few ashes from her cigar.

"I wasn't sure if that's what it meant, but thank you for confirming it."

"Phantom Girl, this isn't funny!" Superman exclaimed, looking desperately around them for someone listening in.

"Relax Superman, I'm not going to broadcast it to everyone," Phantom Girl smiled. "I just had to satisfy my own curiosity."

Still feeling like someone had thrown him in a horror movie Superman waited for the really high pitched girly scream to come out of nowhere.

"Oh look, here's your lover boy now," Phantom Girl giggled, waving to someone behind Superman. "Hi Brainy."

Swinging around Superman saw that Brainy was indeed approaching them but instead of his usual joy at seeing him, he felt his heart sink; Brainy's entire body just seemed to sag as if there was a giant weight on him, and he wasn't meeting his gaze.

"Brainy?"

Not answering, Brainy walked himself into Superman's arms and held onto him with a resigned sort of firmness.

Wrapping his arms around Brainy in return, Superman tried to get the Coluan to look at him.

"Brainy, what's wrong?"

"I-I need to be alone today. I just wanted you to know that I won't be coming to any meals or to bed tonight and please don't come to see me," Brainy's voice was very soft and muffled against Superman's chest.

This only served to worry Superman further.

Pulling back, Brainy gave Superman a weak smile.

"I-I'm alright. I just need to spend today remembering. Tomorrow, I promise I'll tell you everything tomorrow."

Superman cupped the side of Brainy's face, trying to retrain his need for answers to give Brainy the time he needed.

"Alright, tomorrow then."

Pulling Superman down and moving himself upwards, Brainy kissed Superman briefly before leaving him to be alone.

All Superman could do was stand there and watch.

"Poor Brainy," said Phantom Girl, reminding Superman of her presence. "He must have remembered that tomorrow is the day that Lyle left."

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

Brainy stood in front of the door to Lyle's lab for a long time. He stared at it, trying to will it out of existence but when it didn't work he entered the keyword and slowly crept inside.

The lab was clean – Brainy had made several machines to make sure of that, and everything was in the same place as Lyle had left it.

After Lyle didn't return Brainy put nearly everything that reminded him of the other scientist into this room. Pictures, joint projects and the first gift he had ever received; 'The Complete Collection of Sherlock Homes'.

Lyle had given Brainy the electronic book for Christmas, commenting that he and Sherlock had a lot in common; mostly that he made other people feel like idiots. It had struck Brainy's curiosity but he never found the time to read it and, after Lyle's disappearance, he hid it away.

Picking up the book, Brainy walked over to the couch Lyle had managed to get for his lab on the excuse that he was going to end up sleeping there a lot anyway and a couch was better than the floor.

Again he hesitated.

Reaching out, he touched the top of the couch and trailed his hand down to reside on the armrest.

How many times had he sat on this couch with Lyle, planning their form of an attack on a new invention, making strategies for missions, Brainy trying to talk Lyle out of pulling another stupid prank? How many times had he ended up falling asleep here only to wake up later with Lyle creeping around quietly so not to wake him or trying to lie down next to him to sleep as well?

Laying down on the couch, Brainy held the book to his chest and could almost imagine that he could smell Lyle there on the soft brown fabric.