09/21/13

Sept 21: New Season Saturday: Make designs/story for if the show had a third season.

To Start Over

The first thing Brainy did when he was on his own was build a new force field belt. He knew his new organic form was a lot more vulnerable than his previous android self and he needed to do more to protect it. That was why he also arranged to take several classes in various forms of self defense, not seeing much reason to relearn how to fight since he had left the Legion, crime fighting and world saving antics behind.

Still the Legion was never far from Brainy's mind, even when he found a new career at the Time Institute. Strangely it wasn't even the Legion Brainy thought of most frequently; it was the Legionnaires themselves that occupied Brainy's thoughts most often. It was very similar as to when he could not stop thinking of Superman when he returned to the past and thus made a holographic replacement to appease his thoughts.

When Brainy tried to look up what this meant, the computer informed him that he had the symptoms of missing someone. That seemed only logical since he had been told it was okay to miss Superman before but he hadn't thought that was the reason Superman occupied his thoughts at the time.

The only cure for missing someone was to see or speak to them but neither seemed like an option, since he left the Legion, and he didn't have a holograph projector either to compensate for that. Perhaps if he ignored it the missing would go away?

As if to spite him, when ignoring it didn't work, Brainy started to develop new habits whenever he missed one of the Legionnaires. Or rather he started to do things that reminded him of the Legionnaires when he missed them.

Whenever Brainy found himself missing Bouncing Boy he would venture to a comic book store and buy a random comic, or rather not so random since it was 99.9% of the time a Superman comic, and take it back to his apartment to read. This was much better then when he tried to watch a horror movie since it turns out watching a horror movie when you lived alone made being alone at night that much more alone feeling if that was possible. Plus he was sick of barricading his desk against his bedroom door whenever he wanted to attempt sleeping.

Triplicate Girl reminded Brainy of multiple things, given her multiple nature. The simplest thing seemed to be to have things of her colors together on objects but besides a wind chime he found the objects did nothing but clutter so he got rid of them. In the end he always remembered her playing with his hair when he thought of the feminine triple threat so he grew it back out to the length it was when Superman joined the Legion. Though he preferred keeping it in a ponytail most of the time he would occasionally take the ponytail out and run his fingers through his hair like she used to.

The easiest person to find someone for was Timber Wolf since, oddly, cats reminded Brainy more of his friend then the canine cousins of the animal his friend named himself after, though dogs did too when they looked the part, and a stray white cat with yellow eyes had made Brainy's balcony its mid afternoon napping grounds. The cat rarely tried to come inside, even when Brainy left open the door, but wouldn't object to napping in Brainy's lap if the Coluan decided to sit outside for his cocoa break. The cat seemed to enjoy bathing in the sunlight, which reminded him of Superman, and soon Brainy became attached to the purring feline, though very much uncaring for the fur it often left behind. For a while Brainy went back and forth on calling the cat Lone Wolf and Timber Kitten but whenever he imagined his friend's reactions to dubbing the cat such Brainy decided calling the cat Koko was much safer.

It took a while to find something that reminded Brainy of Phantom Girl. He tried reading fashion and gossip magazines but they made him feel like he was losing his intelligence with each sentence he read. After that he tried wearing his white lab coat more often but besides when wind blew it about like a cape it didn't do much to ease his missing of the raven haired girl. It wasn't until he said something to one of the idiots that dared call himself a scientist at the Institute that Brainy found something; sarcasm. Somewhere along the lines he began to associate sarcasm with Phantom Girl and each time he used it he couldn't help but smile.

Storms were the best when Brainy missed Lightning Lad for he would sit in his living room, with a mug of hot chocolate, wrapped in a blanket with the door to the balcony open and just watch for the lightning as the rain splattered the entryway. This was also the only time Koko would come inside, rolling and bathing himself in a pile of towels Brainy purposely starting leaving in front of the heat stone, in place of a fire place like Superman would have had at the Kent farm. Still one could never plan for storms but one could always listen to an audio track of one in their absence.

The hardest to find something for was Saturn Girl but it wasn't because he couldn't think of anything; it was because he could think of too many things and it was too overwhelming to be bombarded by them all on a regular basis. He had to find one to concentrate on and block the rest or he would go insane and need another containment device like the one he built for the alignment, only this time there would be no Superman to save him from it. In the end he ended up making a ring with a small stone on it from Titan that even had a small ring in the stone that made it look a little like Saturn. It worked well because his finger had felt empty without his Legion ring and he could look at it whenever he missed Saturn Girl and remember their times together and that hopefully he would see her again one day.

Though it would appear that day would come sooner than Brainy expected. He left his apartment in the morning and in his rush, walked straight into a broad chest that hadn't been there a moment before. The collision should have made him fall but the same person he bumped into caught him and held him securely instead of righting him.

"Are you alright Brainy," a voice asked that Brainy didn't care to admit that he heard in his head nearly every day. A person he couldn't find something to concentrate on because everything reminded him of this person and he probably would have gone crazy without those memories.

"I am fine Superman," Brainy noted that the other boy was pretty much the same age as when they had saw each other, though it had been well over a year for Brainy. "What brings you back to the 31st century?"

Without pausing Superman stated, "You," and then added, "The Legion needs you."

"I doubt that," Brainy moved about until Superman set him on his feet. "There are plenty of those in the Legion that would make up for my absence."

"None of them are you," Superman followed Brainy as he walked towards the Time Institute. "Everyone misses you."

Part of Brainy wanted to admit that he had missed them as well but he couldn't bring himself to say it. He still hadn't even managed to look Superman in the face.

"They are free to visit whenever they wish."

"Brainy," Superman blocked Brainy's path, almost making them collide again. He had his arms crossed across his chest. "Look at me."

When Brainy managed to look up, he was confused by the gentle smile on Superman's face, as if waiting patiently for him to realize something.

Then, when Brainy said nothing, Superman uncrossed his arms and laid his hands, strong enough to crush coal into diamonds, and gently rested them on Brainy's shoulders in a way that felt like Superman could form him into something different too; something better. The thought was odd and illogical but not unwelcomed.

"I've missed you too," Superman's voice brought him back to the conversation. He smiled encouragingly, giving Brainy's shoulders a squeeze. "Come home."

Home; that was something Brainy's apartment had never been. The apartment was just a convenient place to sleep between his shifts at work. Colu had never been home either. The only place he could call that was the Legion but he lost that when he gave into Brainiac; how could he build back everything that mistake had broken?

There must have been something in Brainy's face to cause worry for Superman suddenly hugged him and promised everyone would be overjoyed at his return.

The promise of seeing everyone, overjoyed or not, was enough to make Brainy surrender, hugging Superman as tightly as his limbs could manage, fingers clutching his cape, and could only answer in a nod.

It took a while for them to separate and then Superman followed Brainy back to his apartment to help him pack. Still Superman wasn't much help seeing at he kept staring at Brainy.

"Are you seeing someone?" Superman's question seemed out of the blue and at Brainy's stare he added, "You have a ring."

"It was something I made, not from anyone," Brainy didn't explain further, not wanting to admit the ring's true purpose and curious as to why Superman asked though he could he his answer made the iconic hero happy.

Perhaps he would figure it out with the help of Saturn Girl?