09/10/08
Just a random idea I thought of around Easter that I thought might be cute. The idea resurfaced after reading xxxHolic #10.
So far I hate all of my classes and think that I must secretly hate myself to have become an English major. I honestly don't care or want to know any of the stuff from my classes and the only reason I'm taking them is because of requirements.
Enjoy.
The Wishing Egg
Chapter 1
Bouncing Boy insisted that he thought it was a good idea: give the Legion a chance to talk to civilians in a casual setting, but it was nothing short of a riot.
Outside Legion headquarters the town had set up a small carnival with a superhero theme. Many of history's heroes were there in some way in posters and other such prizes for the games; including Superman, who had returned to the past but a month previously.
Since the entire Legion was required to spend at least an hour each at the carnival, Brainy was forced to walk amongst hundreds of Superman smiles that seemed to mock him as they looked straight through the Coluan from every angle.
He couldn't understand why he missed Superman so badly. He couldn't understand his desire to run away from all his images, lock himself in his room and try to pretend that they had never met to begin with.
Making a mental note, Brainy marked down a time to do a self diagnostic to figure out why his chest was hurting so badly.
"Brainiac Five!"
Something else to look into was a repellent for strange girls that followed him everywhere, giggling…
Trying to remind himself that it wasn't in the best interests of the Legion to outwardly show how much these girls annoyed him, Brainy turned in the direction he had heard his name called.
Three girls had come forward, one of them – the one in the middle – looked particularly nervous. She was holding something in her hands.
"Yes?" he asked.
The girls on either side of the middle girl looked at each other and nodded. Together they gave the middle girl a firm push forwards.
Barely managing not to fall over, the nervous girl was less then a foot away from him now.
It might have been wise to take a precautionary step back…
The girl was wringing the item she was holding, possibly a rabbit's foot. He recalled that humans tended to find this appendage lucky; though it was certainly unlucky for the rabbit to say the least.
"Brainiac Five, I- I- I like you!"
What an absurd notion. This was the first time he had ever seen this girl. How could she possibly know him well enough to like him? There were members of the Legion whom he saw practically every day who didn't like him.
"Would you go on a date with me?" asked the girl, barely meeting his eye.
Even though he couldn't see him, Brainy heard Lightning Lad snickering.
"I'm sorry, but I don't know you well enough to accept that invitation."
The two girls from earlier gave Brainy a pair of identical dirty looks but the nervous girl just smiled.
"I kinda figured but I still wanted to ask." She extended her shaking arms to hold out to him the item she had been wringing.
Curious, Brainy took it – a simple yellowish egg.
"It's a wishing egg," the girl smiled. "It gave me the courage to talk to you, now I want you to have it."
"I don't-" Brainy began, trying to give her the egg back. He didn't believe in wish granting objects.
"Please keep it," she girl withdrew her hands and didn't wait for his reply: turning and rushing away.
If her two friends' death glares were any indication, she had probably started to cry.
Even after Brainy's sentence at the carnival was over, he continued to be harassed by Lightning Lad about 'breaking that poor girl's heart' and the Triplicates asking for the details of the encounter over and over and over again.
It was a relief when the time came to recharge for the night.
Sitting on his bed, Brainy examined the egg he had been given: as big as a chicken egg but yellow in color. He couldn't recognize it from any egg-laying species in his databanks but he could look it up again tomorrow.
Placing the egg on his headboard – which was like a little shelf that included a datapad in case he had ideas for inventions during the night – he lay down and curled to his side to go to sleep.
Later that night, when he turned in his sleep, he jostled the headboard just enough so that the egg rolled onto the bed with him, down the pillow and bumped against his hand.
Yawning, he took hold of the egg and held it gently against his chest; his hand upturned, and continued to dream – not even noticing the warmth and tiny pulse the egg had begun to give off.