Purple Poppy Milk Prologue
Suggested Themes:
Main Themes- Feed the Birds from Mary Poppins, Poor in Love by Destroyer
"Irma, he's too young to be part of the Legion. I mean he looks seven. Also, I highly doubt that his impressive intellect translates into emotional maturity." Rokk Krinn and Garth Ranzz both argued. Garth's lightning scar lights up like a warning that he was about to get even more emotional. Rokk is barely keeping his voice down, but he has better check of his emotions because he is the leader this term. Irma Ardeen is tempted to tug the hairband from her ponytail and shoot it at two of three founding members of Legion. However, giving into a childish desire will not solve the current problem.
"R.J. Brande humbly 'requested' that we at least give the boy an audition. We can at least do that for R.J. Brande after everything he's done for us." It is just the three of them in the conference room. Normally, they would be debating in the audition room, but they did not want the rest of the Legion to know about this meeting because it might not matter to them now. Depending on the outcome of this private meeting.
"If he fails, then what will happen with the kid? Will the Coluans even take him back?" Under Garth's protests, he is genuinely concerned with the Coluan boy's fate. Coluans normally don't leave their planet, unless they are ambassadors. There hasn't been an ambassador from Colu in almost fifteen years. Colu is still a member of the United Planets, but they have ceased being active after the last ambassador's suicide. In fact, Colu has only allowed a select few to visit their planet in recent years. R.J. Brande happens to be one of the select few, and his visit to the planet caused him to ask a favor of the Legion, which he privately funds.
"The Time Institute is very interested in having him join them. If he doesn't want to go with them, then he might try for the Starfleet Academy." Irma makes a mental note to try and create a Legion Academy sometime in the future. It would be nice to train more of these Legion hopefuls in a professional setting, rather than through Bouncing Boy's unofficial classes and through the helpful tips column of "Legion Annual". Also, there would be less accidents if these hopefuls were formally trained to use their powers. However, this future audition will only be about one hopeful. Although, he doesn't look very hopeful.
"I don't think the Starfleet Academy would even accept him. You have to be at least sixteen and need a letter of recommendation from a captain. They're not going to accept a fourteen year-old, no matter how impressive. Especially given his planet's political isolation." Rokk informed Irma in a way that reminded her of her mother.
"Would you two at least let the poor boy try out?" Irma's pink eyes are flashing, much like Garth's scar, like she is about to put a horrific image in their heads if they don't agree. But Garth and Rokk know she won't. At least, not yet.
"I hate to crush some poor kid's hopes like that. He looks like there's nothing joyous in his life. I hate to be another disappointment for this kid." They look at the picture in the files again. It is a boy with green skin, blonde hair, and green eyes. He is very small much like a child that will never grow up. The picture only shows the boy's upper half of his body, but purple is clearly the kid's favorite color. There is three, silver dots in a triangular symbol of his shirt front, almost like an arbitrary display of governmental ownership. He is not smiling, and the worst part is for the three, it is quite possible that the kid does not know how to smile. His eyes are lit as though there is a rebellion brewing inside the unsmiling child. They agree to let the boy try, not because R.J. Brande "asked" them to, but out of pity and curiosity for the little Coluan.
It is April 1, 3014 at exactly 1:01 PM. It just so happens to be the exact day and time when Brainiac Five was born, not that it was actually worth celebrating to the young Coluan. In the past, his birthday only signified to him as a day to endure the Hive's annual assessment of his well-being and mental progress. Now, it is perhaps the best day of his life thus far. But only because he is finally fourteen-years-old.
"Brainiac Five, today you are old enough to make the Choice." The Choice is what every Coluan has to make once they turn fourteen. The main point of it is to allow young Coluans a chance to either forever remain on Colu and focus on their careers. Or to go into the great unknown and never come back. However, the choice is radically different for Brainiac Five because he is a Dox. To be exact, the only Dox left at the government's disposal. The Dox family has been Colu's greatest resource for the family has twelfth-level intellect as oppose to the average Coluan's tenth-level intellect. However, madness runs rampant in the family.
"You may choose to remain here where you will surely excel in whatever career you attempt. Or you may leave." Normally, the "and never return" part is added to the usual spew for usual Coluans. However, the Hive would prefer to have the Dox come back if he chooses to leave. If only for the latest Brainiac to reproduce and leave behind his progeny like his mother.
"The Hive has provided you everything that you could ever need. It would be highly advisable if you continue to let us do so, in return, you shall contribute to the rest of society." The Hive consists of five Coluans who happen to be selected to lead because of their proficiencies in their individual fields of Health, Law, Science, Education, and Technology. They are the government of Colu and oversee the daily lives of almost all of the Coluans. There are three women and two men that make up the Hive. The women have very short, blonde hair and humorless, green eyes, while the men are bald with the same uninteresting eyes. They are the oldest Coluans on the planet, but they don't look a day over thirty. Their superior genetic engineering and technology is what Colu is primarily known for to the rest of the universe. And viewing the rest of the universe as inferior.
"I am very grateful for the Hive's plentiful resources." By far, it is the most truthful thing he has ever said to them, not counting the times he had to give updates about his well-being. His robotic caretakers used to do that for him until he disassembled them when he was seven. They took away his prototype Time Bubble, a device that may have allowed him to time-travel, because time-travel is forbidden on Colu. He had never been so furious in his young life, not even when being told the truth about his parents. Of course, the Hive was alerted to this when the robots' homing device went offline. A Hive member came to investigate and found the young Coluan making his own dinner. It was then that Brainiac Five stiffly told them that he can take care of himself from now on and didn't require anyone. And the Hive let him.
"Your gratefulness is noted. What have you chosen?" Her voice pitches ever so slightly higher. Brainiac Five knows that she and the rest of the Hive are very anxious about his choice. He almost derives pleasure from eliciting an emotional reaction from those stiffs. Much like when the Master derived pleasure from refusing to regenerate for the Doctor. Once his robot caretakers were gone, he was able to receive gifts from the ambassadors and important entrepreneurs that came to visit him. Before the robot caretakers would take his gifts and give them to the Hive, which were promptly melted down and recycled into helpful materials. His favorite gift was video files of every "Doctor Who" episode ever made and it came from R.J. Brande.
"I have chosen to leave Colu and go to Earth to join the Legion of Super-Heroes." He almost smirks triumphantly as though he tortured a Dalek. R.J. Brande gave him those video files when he was eight and did not return until two months ago. The Durlan trapped in human form (he'll investigate that once he settles on Earth) had hoped that Brainiac Five would be faring better. Alas, to the rich man, he found a child that only knew of social interactions from "Doctor Who". He promised Brainiac Five to save him, to make up for failing another Dox, by giving him a chance to be a superhero. Or at least to try out for a superhero team.
"Are you positive in your choice? If you are, then we strongly advise you to come back after you mature and procreate with a selected Coluan." Brainiac Five almost claps at the amount of self-restraint that the Hive is exhibiting over their anger and disgust. Of course, they will have to accept his choice to leave. Brainiac Four's choice to leave was refused and she decided to kill her parents in retaliation. The Hive does not wish to repeat that past, even though Brainiac Five has only inherited her physical features and intelligence. However, his hair is exactly like his father's hair. At least that is what the robotic caretakers were programmed to tell him.
"Affirmative. I will come back when I choose to." It is a lie that fills Brainiac Five with the kind of warmth that he got from receiving gifts. He is never going to ever come back to this planet. Nor will he ever have children. He swears to himself that he shall be the last Brainiac in the universe and will not damn anymore to this mantle. So far, all the previous Brainiacs have destroyed worlds, killed people, and abandon their kin. He will make up for it by being nothing like his ancestors. He will be rebellious and not allow his logic to cruelly rule him like it did to the people before him.
"At six o' clock tomorrow morning, a ship shall pick you up and take you to the trans-matter gate. You may leave." The Hive stands up from their honeycomb-shaped table and bow before him. Brainiac Five does not have to bow back because they are inferior to him. However, he does bow in a fleeting moment of kindness. They do not matter to him anymore and neither does the rest of Colu. He will spend his last night packing up his belongings and bidding farewell to his childhood home. He feels liberated already.
His childhood home is two hundred miles outside the capital, isolated from the populace. The house is surrounded by a hundred acres of grass and ancient, purple trees. There used to be a force field around his home, but after dismantling the caretakers, Brainiac Five decided to take apart the force field generator. The purpose of the force field was to ensure that Brainiac Five would not be able to get out, but he argued with the Hive that he had nowhere else he wanted to go on Colu. And like his insistence of not needing robotic caretakers, they obeyed his wish. He did recycle the force field generator into a belt. He also recycled the parts of his robot caretakers to make a prototype Flight Ring. He can fly for about a minute. Hopefully, he'll find a metal on Earth that will strengthen duration.
The ship is one of the fastest that Colu has to offer, which is highly sought after by certain planets in the United Planets, and shaped much like a comet with a florescent tail. Within five minutes and in a blur of purple, Brainiac Five is deposited in front of his home. The ship is automatically programmed to return to the capital after dropping off the worshipped Coluan. Brainiac Five does not watch the ship depart like he normally does, but rather decides to pack his belongings. He didn't do so early because he wanted to make sure that the Hive would actually let him go, and they wisely did in a very begrudging manner.
His home is designed to constantly remind Brainiac Five that he is nothing but a Brainiac. The house is three cylindrical structures with three stories. Two are in the far back and separated by half an acre of purple trees, while being connected to the each other by the hallways of the stand-alone cylinder. From above, Brainiac Five knows that the house is purposely created to look like the Brainiac symbol, his family's crest. The right side (that is the right cylinder and hallway) is where Brainiac Five's room (along with a spare bedroom and private bathroom), lab, and library are located. The left side is where the kitchen, dining room, public bathroom, and educational room are located. The left side is also where Brainiac Five receives his important visitors and patiently listens to their prattle until they give him his gift.
The stand-alone cylinder also acts as the elevator to the house. Brainiac Five chooses the second floor where the library is located. The library actually takes up the whole second floor, including the hallway. The reason for this is that the library has books that been collected by various members of the Dox family since Brainiac One, and even a few books before that time. Books were viewed obsolete and a waste of resources to average Coluans, especially since data files can hold more information and take up less space than books. However, the Dox family is known for eccentrics, so the Hive have not ordered the books to be recycled. It was the only place that his robotic caretakers were programmed not to disturb, so he hid inside the library and read as much as he could when he was younger. Now, he has to make a very important decision regarding which books he should bring to Earth.
He has two storage cubes. The grey cubes are tall enough to reach his knees, but light enough for him to lift even filled to the max. One is for his clothes, tools, emergency supplies, interesting gifts he has received, some unfinished experiments, and his blueprints for future experiments. The other cube is only for the books. There are exactly 15,000 books that encompass the library and the shelves in the hallway. However, the cube has a limit of 500 items; in this case, it can only hold up to 500 books. The reason for this is once an item enters the cube it is converted to digital data and stored much like files on a primitive computer. Luckily, there are no Vashta Nerada living inside the books.
He has read all 14,999 books that the library has to offer. Half of the books were from various planets that Vril Dox II (Brainiac Two) visited and documented centuries ago, but the books are horribly outdated by this point. Some of the books were obviously gifts from past ambassadors that visited past Brainiacs. Those books were flattering propaganda about their own planet and why Colu should trade or ally with them. He has one journal from his father about his times as an ambassador before he killed himself. The white leather journal is the only reminder of his father, other than his hair. The only book he hasn't read is a purple-paged book written by Brainiac One's "wife". The book has obviously been cared for in the past with someone (most likely Vril Dox II) refurbishing the pages and fixing the spine. Brainiac Five cannot decipher it because of the antiquated syntax and being formatted like some "magic" spell. Coluans do not care for a past before Brainiac, or at least that is what a millennium of conditioning and brainwashing has imparted on them.
The only books that he shall keep for himself are Vril Dox II's observations (if only to update the ones that interest him), his father's journal, and the "magic" book. The rest of the books are only books that he shall donate to various historical societies, museums, and to R.J. Brande's private collection. Even though those books are dull manuals and biased propaganda, he knows that some historian, curator, or rich man shall view them as treasures from a mysterious, isolated planet. He could just get more storage cubes if he wanted the whole library with him, but he doesn't. He can come back to this place anytime he wanted to. However, he has no desire to return. Besides, he'll be far too busy "updating" the Legion.
Author's Comments- I took down my old Legion story because I am not happy with it anymore. Hopefully, this time I won't grow to hate it. The story is mostly based upon the comics, but I shall NOT follow the comics' plotlines. Also, I'll make references to the show because I love the show. Please comment. Also, don't be afraid to point out what mistakes I make.