Flash of Inspiration
Brainiac 5 sat in the lab, picking over his time-travel calculations.
It was fiddly business. People had time-traveled before and survived, but half of that was people from the far future showing up in the distant past. And, needless to say, no one knew exactly how they did it. People who were solidly from the past had time-traveled before, too, but by and large they seemed to be unwilling, or using some means not accessible by the vast majority of life.
But planned time travel, time travel that could be easily directed by anyone, that could go anywhere, anytime…
That was the key.
Of course, he wasn't unaware of how much responsibility it would take for a person to time travel. You had to be very, very careful not to mess up history. No one was sure what would happen if you did, but everyone could agree that it would be catastrophic; possibly to the whole universe and certainly to the person's life.
Brainiac 5 sighed, a habit he'd picked up from the breathing people he lived amongst, and began to doodle aimlessly, waiting for inspiration to strike.
The counter of his dark lab was suddenly backlit by an amazingly intense, slow flash of golden-white light.
He spun, arm reconfiguring into a cannon, to face the intruder.
A blonde man in blue and gold, standing in front of a large opaque bubble he just stepped out of, raised his hands quickly.
"Don't shoot, don't shoot!" he said fervently. "I come in peace!"
Brainy glared at him, suspicious.
Something in his mind went click.
"Michael Jon Carter?" he asked incredulously.
The man sighed in relief and lowered his hands.
"Oh good, you recognized me. I was worried I was going to have to try and explain."
The Legionnaire lowered his arm-cannon slightly.
"What are you doing in my lab?" he demanded.
Michael Jon Carter looked at him warily.
"How much do you know about me off the top of your head?"
"I know that you come from the future, sometime circa the 35th century. I know that you used stolen technology to time-travel, and set yourself up as the 'advertisement hero' known as Booster Gold in the late 20th and early 21st centuries. I know that you helped save the multiverse, and were then recruited by the Time Lord Rip Hunter to police the timestream and make sure that history unfolded in the way it was recorded."
"Actually, it's a teensy bit more complicated than that, but you've got the basic idea."
"You still haven't answered my question."
Booster sighed.
"Look, you know that time-travel theory you're working on?"
Brainy raised his arm cannon a bit more.
"Have you come to take it?"
"No, no!" Booster assured him. "You're supposed to figure it out! And then you're supposed to bring Clark Kent to work with the Legion and teach him about heroing."
The lab was silent for a moment.
"I don't know who you think you are or what you're trying to accomplish," Brainy said flatly. "But I want you out of my lab. Now."
"I already told you who I am," Booster pointed out.
"No, I was the one who identified you," the Legionnaire told him. "And clearly; I was mistaken."
"I promise you, you weren't."
"Prove it," Brainy challenged.
Booster reached over to his right hand and slipped something off one of his fingers, then tossed it to Brainiac 5.
He caught it, arm morphing back so he could use both hands.
He looked down at the object lying in his cupped palms.
A Legion flight ring.
"It's yours," Booster told him.
Brainy turned it over in his fingers, examining it. Sure enough, on the backside of ring face the words "Brainiac 5" were inscribed in Interlac. Just below it, in smaller letters, his real name was written in Coluan.
He stared at the flight ring he was wearing, spared a glance at the man to see what he was doing, then slipped it off and compared the two.
Same shape, same size, same microscopic flaws. There were a few extra scratches on the one Booster had given him, but those could be explained by the extended timespan it had to endure compared to its sister-
He stopped himself right there. He was buying into the man's fantasy before he'd even done more than a cursory examination.
Brainiac 5 slipped his ring back on and then went to work on the other ring with the small mechanical tools he ejected from his fingers. Carefully, he pried the casing off.
The wiring inside was all correct- correct for a Legion flight ring and utterly identical to the special features he'd included in his own.
He replaced the casing and gave Booster another glare.
"How do I know you didn't steal this?"
"You know I did," the man replied. "You already said so yourself. From a museum in the 35th century. Something to think about, isn't it?"
Brainy tossed the ring back and Booster Gold put it on again.
"Look," he said, expression pleading. "I know you probably don't really believe me, but you're going to have to trust me on this, okay? You have to bring Clark Kent to the future- your present."
"Why should I do that?" he snapped.
"Because if you don't then the universe will never have a Superman."
"There is no indication whatsoever that he received any outside help-"
"Well, there wouldn't be, would there?" Booster asked shrewdly. "Not if it was you doing it."
Brainy stood dead still.
"Appealing to my sense of pride in a well-completed job will not help your case," he said carefully.
"But it's an intriguing idea, isn't it?" the man pressed. "Being so good that no one discovered what had happened for a whole millennium? Maybe more?"
The Legionnaire stayed resolutely silent.
"Almost as nice as knowing that you're going to be remembered by people five centuries from now, isn't it?"
"I notice you've neglected to mention in what light they remember my name!" he snapped, then hurriedly shut his mouth again, horrified.
"Clark Kent wouldn't know a thing about your family," Booster told him quietly. "He wouldn't know about the name 'Brainiac'. You could be a teacher to him, a mentor. Friend, even."
The unspoken words hung in the air.
Wouldn't that be nice?
"And then what happens after he learns?" Brainiac 5 asked bitterly, voice soft.
He could see himself falling harder and harder for this the longer the conversation went on, so why was he still playing Booster's game?
"That's entirely up to you. And him, I suppose. But he would still have gotten to know you, free of prejudice. You'd be judged on you alone, and not on your family."
Oh; yes. That was why. A chance, just one chance; to find out if he really was any different.
"How am I supposed to convince the other Legionnaires?"
Booster smiled, knowing he'd got him.
"It won't be hard- you're Brainiac 5, aren't you?"
He pulled out a long, thin computer chip and placed it on the counter.
"Don't worry, you'll know when to use this," he told the Legionnaire. "And as for your teammates, well- they'll be more than happy to bring him here."
Booster Gold climbed into the bubble and saluted him.
"See you around, Querl Dox!"
A hatch on the bubble slid shut and a pinpoint of gold-white light grew and expanded into a swirling flash as the time machine disappeared for locations and times unknown.
Brainiac 5 picked up the computer chip and stowed it in his safe, then sat down heavily in his chair. He held his bowed head between his hands for a moment and wondered what he'd just done.
Then he went back to his calculations.