literature

TOSoP 46

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When they were done with the measurements, Tweek took Brainy by the hand and led him to a back door. They stepped through it out onto what seemed to Brainy to be a deck, with stairs leading down into what looked like a giant landfill of scrap metal.

"Ta da!"

Looking out at it all, Brainy stared in amazement before managing a small 'wow' sound.

"Yeah, the city ends up with tons and tons of scrap metal, so I have what's salvageable sent here so I can reuse it. Usually I just melt it down for components. Want a quick tour? We need to find something to make this thing out of," With that Tweek led Brainy down the stairs and onto the clear path before releasing his hand.

"What kind of metal do you think we should make the headband from?" Brainy questioned, careful to keep his eyes on the path but still look around for usable materials.

Looking up at a pile, Tweek scratched his chin as if he had a beard.

"Well, it needs to be lightweight and conductive... tungsten? Nah, that stuff would shatter at the flick of a finger. Something sturdy would be better, since trouble seems to follow you like shadow. Maybe... octanite?"

Shaking his head, Brainy went through the numerous metals he had worked with before in his mind before returning his gaze to Tweek.

"Does tanzinite exist in this world?"

"Yes, but it's quite rare in this part of the galaxy. So's octanite, but not as much so. I also have a bit of halmenite but its raw and unpurified. Would take a while to melt down and remove the impurities. I might be able to get some tanzinite from an…" Tweek paused, looking around before leaning in to whisper, "acquaintance, but I'd rather not rekindle those kinds of connections."

Several questions wanted to be asked, but Brainy disregarded them.

"Then let's ignore the fact that that acquaintance exists." He went through his mental list again. "How about salemnite?"

Tweek stared at him a good amount of time before straightening himself. "Salemnite? Hope we don't need that cause I've never heard of it."

Trying not to scream in frustration, Brainy ran his fingers through his hair. "I guess it hasn't been discovered yet. Have you ever heard of diamnite?"

Again Tweek scratched his non-existent beard. "Diamnite... diamnite... Sounds familiar but I'm not sure. Does it have another name?"

"I believe it used to be called shironite," Brainy said quickly.

Stopping mid-scratch Tweek seemed to instantly perk up. "Shironite... is it white-ish? With kind of a gold undertone to it? And a very high melting point?"

"Yes," Brainy nodded.

"Maybe…" Tweek walked over to what looked like a map he'd made, similar those to the shopping malls of Earth, complete with a faded 'you are here' sticker. "I put all my limited abilities of organization into this place so I wouldn't have to spend forever trying to find one bit of metal in all this.

"Shironite is still kind of rare for this part of the galaxy, but I'm almost certain I have some. Ah, here we go, it would be in rare metals. Straight ahead, left at the copper hill, right at the platinum stack, and past the old hover cars."

This surprised Brainy. "You have copper and platinum? Did someone go to Earth for those?"

Pointing in the direction they wanted, Tweek began to lead Brainy there.

"A few other planets managed to find some stores of them but yeah, they mostly still come from Earth. A couple of scouting ships sometimes go to see how Earth culture is progressing. No real direct interaction, but they do sometimes pick things off the planet or collect debris floating through space. They keep anything interesting, i.e. entertaining, and basically send anything they don't want to me."

It vaguely reminded Brainy of Bouncing Boy's sci-fi televisions shows from the 21st century.

"I didn't know Krypton did that. Were you serious about going to Earth one day?"

"As serious as I can be. My parents wanted to go but they never got the chance. If I went I'd probably take something of theirs to leave behind, so a little bit of them would always be there," Tweek was no longer facing Brainy, but the Coluan could hear the seriousness in his voice.

Smiling slightly, Brainy squeezed Tweek's shoulder. "How did they get interested in Earth?"

Tweek absently scratched the side of his nose. "It's kind of silly really. On their first space trip together, before they were dating, they came close enough they could see Earth. My mom had developed a serious crush on my dad so when they were as close as they could get, she took him to the observation deck and told him how she felt. And he kissed her. When they looked up, the sun was 'rising over a planet as blue and as beautiful as a dream.' I think their fascination with Earth happened the same moment they really fell in love, so they wanted to better understand a planet that had so much meaning for them."

Brainy smiled when Tweek turned to look at him, the older genius almost appearing worried about his opinion.

"That's not silly at all."

A lopsided smile cracked on Tweek's face before bursting open to show his teeth in a huge grin. "It had seemed silly when I was younger but not so much now."

Behind Tweek a white sparkle caught Brainy's eye. "Isn't that the shironite?"

Tweek turned to look. "Maybe. Let's take a look." He walked over and started to move things carefully out of the way, taking an odd amount of precautions.

"Is something wrong? You don't usually move so carefully," Brainy commented.

"I've gotten hurt pretty badly out here before. While I do have a high pain tolerance, I can still feel, and in certain places I'm still rather sensitive – like chinks in armor. I've just learned how to push it to the back of my mind and keep moving. But that can be dangerous too since pain is how a body tells you something's wrong. I cut my leg out here once, didn't notice, and ended up almost passing out from blood loss," Tweek explained with a pinch of seriousness.

Brainy narrowed his eyes at the older scientist. "You. Move. I'll get it."

Tweek didn't even pause.

"I'm fine Brainy; I'm really trying to be careful. I just need to move this and I'll be able to reach it." He pushed on a hunk of metal, standing on his toes.

Moving forward, Brainy tried to help him.

"Seriously, B, I've got it. You don't have to worry, I can–" Tweek began but a large lump of shironite slipped suddenly out and hit him on the head. He dropped to his knees, flung his hands over his mouth and grated muffled curses.

"Oh yes, you're just fine," grumbled Brainy, pinching the bridge of his nose. "I swear you must be a magnet for accidents." He picked up the shironite, tucked it under his arm and kneeled down next to Tweek. "Let me see your head."

"My head's not the problem," Tweek insisted, trying to let go of it, holding onto it again before releasing it fully. "I think I bit my tongue."

"Let me see your head anyway and then I'll take a look at your tongue," Brainy insisted in return.

With a sigh Tweek sat still for the examination. "At least we got it. We're one step closer."

Stepping closer, Brainy gently examined Tweek's scalp.

"Yeah." He paused as he flicked Tweek's unruly hair out of his way. "You have a bit of a bump but it doesn't seem bad." He pulled back and moved around to Tweek's front. "Let me see your tongue."

Like a child obeying a doctor, Tweek stuck out his tongue and made an exaggerated 'ah' noise.

"Howth ith loog?"

"Well, it's not bleeding but it's definitely swelling. I don't suppose you have any ice at your house?" Brainy asked as he pulled back.

"In da fidge, I thinkth. Whe gon bag?" Tweek continued to speak with his tongue stuck out.

"Sorry, I couldn't understand that last part," Brainy admitted, not wanting to wrongfully guess.

With an almost frog-like movement Tweek sucked his tongue back into his mouth before croaking, "We goin' back?"

"We got what we needed," Brainy agreed offering his hand to assist Tweek in standing up.

Tweek took the hand and rose back his feet. Still holding onto the hand he grinned saying, "Okay, follow me," before letting go and quickly moving around him to start jogging back to the stairs of his workshop.

Eyes widening, Brainy began to run, half flying, after him.

"Be careful!"

Not seeming to care, Tweek turned and looked at him as he ran, making Brainy wince every time he came close to colliding into one pile or knocking his head into some low hanging scrap, but managing to step to the side or duck just in time to avoid them.

"Don't worry; I keep the paths clear. And I have pretty good reflthexes." He stepped to the right a moment too late and his shoulder hit against some, luckily blunt, out-hanging metal. Still he didn't stop running. "Motht of the time."

"That doesn't make me feel any better," Brainy shouted after him.

With a laugh, Tweek slowed down, exaggerating the swinging motion of his arms. "Okay, okay. I'll walk carefully and keep away from anything that could hurt me. Happy?"

Fully returning to the ground, Brainy slowed his pace as well so he wouldn't collide with Tweek and do the same damage the scrap could have done in Tweek's earlier rush, and exclaimed, "Yes!"

"You worry too much, man. I've thurvived this long, haven't I? What are the oddth I'll die any time thoon?" Tweek returned his gaze forward.

This gave Brainy no comfort. "With my luck... very high. Or extremely badly injured at the very least."

"Tho, the thame old thame old for me," Tweek shrugged. "Thince I came down from the thtation there's rarely been a moment where I haven't been in danger. I've kind of gotten uthed to it."

Speeding up, Brainy walked right behind Tweek. "That's not a good thing to get used to."

Again Tweek shrugged. "I didn't thay I liked it, I'm just uthed to it. That's why thometimes I think the counthil was right to move me out here. At least no one elth gets put in danger thith way."

"But Pri-Nox is trying to get you a place to live in town. Does that mean you won't accept it if she succeeds?" Brainy asked.

Tweek exaggerated his next words, "Oh no, I'll acthept it! But if it works out I'm going to keep my workshop here and just commute. That way all the dangerous thtuff thtays well away from the city."

"That's good. Laura would probably hunt you down if you refused," Brainy grimaced at the thought, even though her rage wouldn't be directed at him.

Almost stopping with a sudden burst of laughter, Tweek didn't bother to hide the nervous strain in it.

"Oh man, I would not want to be on her bad thide." He started up the stairs. "It'll probably take a few dayth to properly melt down the shironite. You don't have to come every day if there's thomething you'd rather be doing. I'll just be working on designth, the molds, and pothibly a few unfinished projects until it's ready."

"Well, during the day while Kal-El's at school, I usually don't have much to do except help Laura with Martha and I've honestly haven't done much of that because of all the things that keep happening around me. If you do need help with anything I'd be more than happy to help," Brainy commented half-hopingly.

Tweek grinned, "Okay then! Be warned though, that probably meanth you're going to become a food mule for Laura when you come over." He opened the door and headed in. "Should we thtart melting it now, do you think? That lump looks like enough for anything we design." And he added with a painful chuckle, "Felt like enough too."

"We should probably start melting it down right away since it will take a few days," Brainy retrieved the shironite from under his arm and looked at it. "And I'm sure it's plenty: if not we can always melt down some other supportive metal with it."

"Right!" Tweek took the shironite and walked towards a trapdoor. "The smelting room's down here. I run it off a weak volcanic vent nearby. It's still hot as hell though…"

After watching Tweek disappear down the trapdoor, Brainy followed and immediately took in a gasp of hot, humid air.

"It's like a sauna down here."

Not turning to him, Tweek put on some flameproof gloves. "What's a thauna?"

"It's something humans on Earth made. It's basically a wooden room with heated charcoal that produces steam when water is poured on them. The sole purpose is to go in and get warm, mostly to the point of sweating. Some use it for relaxation while some try to use it to lose weight," Brainy explained, starting to fan himself with his free hand.

"Interethting," Tweek replied absently before he fully thought on what Brainy had said. He then pushed a button and there was a loud sound of gears on gears as a chain was lifted, but then he finished his thought and swung around to look at Brainy. "Wait, are you thaying I need to looth weight?"

At the accusation Brainy rolled his eyes, "If you lost any more weight the wind could take you off to Oz."

This only made Tweek frown more. "Quit uthing words I don't know!"

Brainy winced at the shouting and apologized. At the same time something that looked like a large kiln rose from the floor.

After placing the shironite gently inside, Tweek pressed the button again and it went back down.

"I'm gonna thay it'll take about four days to melt down fully. Now let's go get me thome ith."

Nodding to acknowledge Tweek's need for ice, Brainy continued to explain what he had said earlier, "Oz is a fictional place from Earth literature to which the main character gets taken after being caught in a tornado in Kansas."

A flash of Clark in his sweater-vest and glasses, nervously, almost fearfully, half turning his head and smiling at him in front of the Smallville carnival passed through Brainy's thoughts and he fell silent. His shoulders fell as well and his gaze drifted down to contemplate the floor.
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