Cosmic Boy
Cos woke up early that morning out of habit. He could have slept for another five hours at least.
He didn't want to get up. He didn't want to face the world. He didn't want to face himself.
The Supermen had left yesterday. Brainiac 5 had snuck out the back way during Kell's swearing-in ceremony.
For once, he wouldn't do his job.
"Attention, Legionnaires," he announced over the HQ's commsystem. "This is an off-duty day. Enjoy yourselves."
He found he couldn't enjoy himself. There was too much he kept thinking about.
Would anyone still trust them? Could they still do their duty? Was the team going to survive this? How was he going to explain what happened to the galaxy?
Cos resigned himself to the fact that he might as well get up, because no matter how much he didn't want to face the world, he couldn't keep himself from doing it.
There were 247 messages waiting for him when he finally got around to checking. As he looked at the number, willing it to go down, another twenty messages arrived.
Checking the senders and subjects, he saw that most were from planetary governments, demanding an explanation. A few were threatening to ban the Legion from their worlds unless they got rid of Brainiac 5. One was a very official letter from the United Planets Senatorial Court dictating their exacting verdict.
The newest ones were tabloids and newspapers, wanting an interview.
He sighed and started to read through them in earnest, taking notes as he went.
A few hours later, he reviewed his notes. The tabloids and smaller newspapers just wanted dirt, as usual.
The rest of them wanted the same answer: "What happened with Brainiac 5?".
How was he supposed to answer that? There were shades in that question.
There was the literal, "what happened?".
There was the hidden question of "what was so wrong with him that this could happen?".
For some, the question would be "how could the Legion let this happen?", and the variation "why did you allow this?".
There was "why did he let this happen?".
Cos knew that if he didn't answer all those questions, and even if he did, everyone would draw their own conclusions and the whole thing would be a mess the Legion wouldn't be able to escape.
And it wouldn't just be the heads of state and the journalists, either. It would be every single person in the galaxy.
He ordered the computer to run searches on "Brainiac 5", "Legion", and "crisis". It was time to get the public's opinion.
The public was divided just as the Legion was. There were more naysayers than there were on the team, but no official word had been put out yet besides the court decision. Most of the people for Brainy seemed to be 'for' based on just that court decision alone. The majority of the galaxy seemed to be on the fence, waiting for more information.
Public relations was stressful.
If he worded it this way… no. That would leave too much open to interpretation. Interpretation was not what they needed. No matter how he worded his speech to the press, there was something in it that someone would take the wrong way.
He needed to get out.
Downtown Metropolis was no more relaxing than his quiet apartments. He wasn't very recognizable when he was out of uniform, but everyone was talking about the Legion.
Half of the conversations he overheard walking by were about the catastrophe. Roadside newsstands were hawking quick-download storyfiles on any and all things Brainiac-related.
Even the coffeeshops were abuzz with debate.
He was walking despondently along a side street when a roving vendor caught up with him.
"Buy a storyfile? Latest news on the Legion, Brainiac 5, and what the UP's doing about it!"
"No."
"Mirella Tao elaborates on the life and times of Brainiac 5 in Galaxy Today! Learn of the estranged and tragic love-"
"I know that's rubbish. And Mirella Tao writes for the Daily Galaxy."
"If it's the Daily Galaxy you want, Devlin O'Ryan reports on the intergalactic turmoil caused by this catastrophe-"
"Get lost."
It had taken forever to shake the vendor. He irately thought that street vending should be considered a minor criminal offense.
It was getting darker out. The holoboards were starting to light up, throwing shadows across the streets as the moving advertisements flickered.
He found himself outside the Daily Planet building. The newsboard outside was streaming the nightly Galactic News Broadcast. It was a special feature, all about the Legion.
"Rokk?" asked a familiar voice.
"Lydda?" he asked, turning.
"You look horrible," she told him.
"I feel horrible."
The dark-eyed young woman put her hands on her hips. "Actually, you look worse than horrible. More like appalling. Or ghastly. What have you been doing?"
"Getting deconstructed into my fundamental bits of information, then reconstructed-"
"I meant besides the obvious."
"- dealing with a team that may be on the brink of internal warfare, and trying to figure out what to say to the rest of the galaxy."
"Don't you ever take a day off?"
"This is my day off. I just can't throw the duty off for a day."
Lydda looked at him for a moment, then stepped forward and hugged him tightly.
"You know no one would blame you for taking more time for yourself," she said quietly.
"I would."
She sighed. "So how is figuring out what to say going?"
"No matter how I word it, or what I say, there's always something in it that would cause problems. We have enough problems already."
He stroked her short black hair and closed his eyes. "I want everything to- to-"
"To what?" she asked, just happy he was there.
"I'm not really sure."
She pulled back and held his upper arms. "How about I take your mind off things?"
The Legion of Substitute Heroes broke out into uproarious laughter.
Rokk almost managed to crack a smile. "Starfinger really did that?"
"Oh yeah!" Fire Lad was talking around his laughter, and managed pretty well. "He absolutely hates our guts in that pompous-attitude way of his. Never occurred to him that molasses is only slow when it's cold!
He broke out in side-stitching laughter. "You gotta love the stupid criminals. They don't think anything through all the way."
"Like, what happens if we manage to escape from the 'death trap'? What then?" Infectious Lass snorted.
"Then we turn the tables on them while they're distracted!" Color Kid hooted. He pitched his voice higher. "How dare you incompetent second-stringers foil my diabolical plot! It was utter perfection in death-trap form!"
Rokk almost managed to contain his laugh. It burst out, louder than he'd ever heard it.
"Only a hopelessly bungling bundle of bamboozlers could have possibly ruined the excellence of my execrable machinations of terror!"
He laughed until he cried. "They… he really… how can…" he took a deep breath. "He practiced that one, didn't he?"
"It is a classic line from the very depths of scum and villainy that I thought of five seconds ago." Color Kid bowed elaborately. "Hold your applause, please."
Cos finished laughing, and turned to Lydda. "I haven't laughed this much in ages," he told her breathlessly.
"That's what it sounds like."
"You should get out more; both of you," Porcupine Pete said. "Night Girl spends too much time around here as it is."
"I do have a reputation to keep up," Rokk pointed out.
"Ah, you've got to know when to stop caring about reputation and procedure and when to go with what you need to do right now," Fire Lad said. "Anything to keep you sane."
"What do you say, Rokk? Shall we make plans for a date?" Lydda elbowed him.
"I'd love to, but something would probably crop up. I wouldn't be able to go back on my duty for that, to tell the truth."
He paused. "To tell the truth…"
"I sense a revelation coming on." She smiled at him.
"I need to know when to stop caring about reputation, huh?"
"Absolutely." The Subs were adamant on this point.
"Thanks for all this, Lydda." Rokk leaned over and kissed her. "I've figured out what to say now. And how to say it."
She looked fondly at him. "Go shake the world."
"You called a press conference? Since when do you do that?"
"Since I got some very good advice."
Cosmic Boy faced the assembled press corps the next morning. The plaza was abuzz with whispered conversations and the droning of hovercams. He could feel Saturn Girl and Lightning Lad sitting behind him.
He cleared his throat.
The conversations stopped, but the hovercams still droned on.
He began speaking.
Transcript from the Daily Galaxy's report on The Legion Press Conference (Rokk Krinn's speech):
I spent a long time thinking about how to word this speech. I spent most of that time worrying about semantics, and connotations, and how the whole galaxy would take what I said about the Brainiac Situation. I was afraid that people would take it wrong, and that we would get mired in a situation we wouldn't be able to bail ourselves out of.
It weighed on my mind so much that I did what many people do when faced with a difficult situation: I tried to forget about it. I took a walk, and met some friends in an unexpected place. We spent a few good hours together, joking and trading advice. I got a flash of insight where I wasn't expecting one. That seems like a common enough occurrence.
It was some good advice. They told me that I needed to stop worrying about reputation and procedure and get on with what needs to be done.
I ended up giving myself some good advice, too.
To tell the truth.
So I came back here to Headquarters and talked to some people. Then I announced this press conference. I'm doing this without a script and without prompt cards, because the truth shouldn't be rehearsed. It should be heard.
A lot of people have contacted me in the last forty-eight hours, all demanding an answer to the same question: What happened with Brainiac 5?
I am of the opinion that the question should rightly be: What happened with the Legion?
This Situation has its roots farther back than anyone thinks. It depends on where you want to start. You could start at the point that Colu decided that the best way to preserve information was to keep a sort of digital "racial memory" in the back of family's minds pertaining to their ancestors. That's the really long-term view.
You could start at the point when Superman X first encountered Brainiac 5, and began dropping hints no one got until much later. That's just the regular long-term view.
You could start at the beginning of our mission to Krypton. That's where everyone actually got it, more or less.
I'll start there. It makes the most sense.
Imperiex managed to do enough research and enough faking that he got to the Fortress of Solitude before us. He somehow managed to dig up the information about Kandor being stored there. True to form, Brainiac 5 knew what the team was looking at before anyone had bothered ask what happened.
Kandor was understandably hesitant about trusting him, and inquiries from the mission team led to an outburst that managed to shock everyone on the mission besides Chameleon Boy. I am led to understand that there was quite a confrontation about the newly-aired facts regarding Brainiac 5's ancestry.
Imperiex's stated goal was to steal a piece of Kryptonian technology called 'The Messenger', a device that held the planet Krypton together before it was forcefully removed by Brainiac 1. In a series of decisions afterwards, most of the mission team was captured by Imperiex. Another confrontation ensued between Brainiac 5 and the other uncaptured team member over the issue of what to do with The Messenger.
This second confrontation led to a decision on Brainiac 5's part that was definitely good for Kandor and Krypton, but not nearly so much for him.
He came to the logical conclusion, which is what usually happens with him. He knew that he had the memories of the original Brainiac, and that by accessing this information he stood a good chance of saving everyone from Imperiex.
So he accessed those memories, and helped drive out Imperiex and restore the entire planet of Krypton.
After the mission team returned, there was no concealing the uncomfortable truth about Brainiac 5's ancestry. Most of the team was entirely surprised; but a few members, mostly from non-Seeded worlds, were already aware of this fact. That just made everyone else feel like utter idiots for not making the connection sooner.
The next sixth months are everyone's fault.
We all should have noticed Brainiac 5's odd behaviors. They did not become apparent until soon before the Situation; about a week.
This was also partially his fault. He could have asked for help from us, though clearly there were many and variegated issues on this front.
The actual Situation began when Brainiac 5 finally admitted to the rest of us what was going on with him. By that time, he was definitively losing the battle against the corruption of his mainframe. That was four days ago. He was locked in his rooms on the cruiser for his and our safety. During that confinement, Imperiex staged an attack on the Legion cruiser. All other available team members deployed to meet the attack. Sometime during the duration of that battle, Brainiac 1 managed to completely subsume Brainiac 5's mind. He escaped confinement and ended the battle through a highly unusual use of force, whereupon he reassured everyone that he was fine.
For clarification purposes, the use of the term 'Brainiac' from here on out designates the original.
I had a guard posted on Brainiac 5's rooms. Brainiac overcame them and the other Legionnaires he met on the way to the cruiser's hangar. He seriously injured at least one. He then proceeded to Imperiex's base of operations and murdered Imperiex. Brainiac then set course for Colu. The Legion offered their services to the world, and those services were declined. Brainiac arrived on Colu and overtook the Hivemind, subjugating the entire population of that planet to his will.
The further acts of conquest and deconstruction have been recorded in detail elsewhere.
The Legion engaged Brainiac's forces in battle. Only the Supermen, Saturn Girl, Triplicate Girl, and Bouncing Boy were left on the ship.
Superman refused to believe that Brainiac 5 could be completely destroyed, and advocated Saturn Girl to run a further investigation. Saturn Girl, with permission, took both Superman and Superman X's psyches and shunted them into Brainiac's mainframe.
Brainiac 5 managed to break free of Brainiac's influence during this psychic battle, and proceeded to completely purge his ancestor from his conscious. The results of this have also been well-documented elsewhere.
The Legion held an emergency staff meeting after the event to try and reach a decision as to what should be done with Brainiac 5 as it pertains to the team. It was decided, with great compromise on all sides, that the Legion would not force Brainiac 5 to stay or to leave. We received the United Planet's Senatorial Court verdict during that meeting, as well as the provisions that applied to the Legion within that ruling.
As to the matter of Brainiac 5: we currently have no knowledge of his whereabouts. He did notify certain Legionnaires of his intention to leave, but he himself left without prelude while the rest of us were otherwise occupied; and we were unaware of his absence up until an hour or so later. This occurred two days ago.
(The questions from the assembled press corps and the answers given by Cosmic Boy are omitted from this transcription.)