09/21/15

First day of CxB Week 2015!

Theme: LET THE GAMES BEGIN MONDAY!

Wreck It Brainiac

The video game "Save Us Superman" was a relatively newly designed video game, designed to look like the old 8-bit graphics of the early days of arcades. In the few months since the game has been released to the video game store, no one had made it passed the first villain, designed after the original Brainiac. This made things a little boring for 8-bit Brainiac Five who, given his name, assumed he was a villain.

At night the characters of the game would wonder out and mingle with the other video games, getting to know their new home. Brainiacs One through Four stuck together, true to their "bad guy code", and often caused trouble, closely watched by the Surge Protector, whom looked a lot like one of the background cop characters of "Save Us Superman", but Brainiac Five never felt comfortable around his fellow Brainiacs. He especially felt chills whenever around Brainiac Four so he avoided her whenever possible.

Even as he avoided his namesakes, the characters from his own game and others avoided him. The Superman character was the only one who would talk to him freely but he was nice to everyone, even trying to be civil to the other Brainiacs when not in a game with a player. Of course the other Brainiacs ignored him but Brainiac Five found Superman's personality refreshing, if not a bit naïve.

A lot of nights Brainiac Five would find himself sitting on a bench in the Game Junction with Superman and listening to the hero tell him about the games of the day and the background characters he saved which, of course, Superman all knew by name. It made Brainiac Five wish someone would get to his level so he would have something to contribute to the conversation but he didn't want to fight against Superman either.

Only a week had passed before Superman became known as a universally nice hero and soon enough Brainiac Five had to share him with other "Bad Guys" whom had no one who would associate with them besides each other. Nearly none of these characters were bad outside their games but it didn't stop them from being isolated and sometimes flat out shunned. The only Bad Guy whom seemed to have "Good Guy" friends outside of Superman was a character named Ralph, whom normally rushed by them to visit the racing game called "Sugar Rush".

One day Ralph stuck around to talk to Brainiac Five while Superman was swarmed by other Bad Guys and they got to talking about programming.

Apparently in the "old days" of video games characters had set roles and knowledge but were their own person outside of game play. Some things were instinctual even if they didn't become aware of those instincts until they came up in game play. Moreover a Bad Guy wouldn't necessarily be a bad person outside of game play, even if their programmed abilities could cause trouble, such as Ralph having a temper and a tendency to wreck stuff while under the control of that temper.

That rule of thought went out the window when "Call of Duty" came to the arcade and their Bad Guys, the Cy-Bugs, were revealed to be mindless destroyers that had no clue they were in a game. They would continue to destroy outside of game play if the game didn't have a recall function to stop them. Ever since then new games that came to the arcade had Bad Guys that were either mindless in their tasks or true to their villainous nature outside the games like the Brainiacs.

"But you're not like them," Ralph was quick to say. "I'm sure others will see that too and things will get better."

The Good Guy characters slowly became less afraid of him and the other Bad Guys as they associated with Superman. Still Brainiac Five always felt uncomfortable around both groups and he couldn't get Superman to himself anymore so he spent more time alone, ignoring invitations to a Bad Guy Support group from one of Pac-Man's ghosts.

Soon enough Brainiac Five took to exploring his own game, trying to figure out its limits. It didn't take long for him to find a blacked out area outside the game play area of Metropolis that was different then the end of their world which was the back of the game or the front of the game with the screen for the player to view in. It was just black like a solid, unmovable veil.

Brainiac Five knocked onto the black and someone on the other side knocked back.

After some asking around among the Bad Guys, Brainiac Five learned that black out areas like that were bonus levels that were locked in their section until a player unlocked them. After they were unlocked once the bonus level characters were free to roam the game, and leave the game, outside of game play like the others but until then they were trapped. Bonus levels were different than normal Bad Guys, even ones whom the player had reached at their level yet, or Guide Characters that lead the way to prizes or bonus levels because they always had to be available whereas the Bonus characters were almost like a different game entirely and unlocking the Bonus Level was what connected their worlds.

Superman, whom had been listening in the whole time, thought that it was horrible. It frankly wasn't right for those characters to be trapped like that and they had to do something to save them.

Again Brainiac Five found Superman's optimism refreshing, if not a bit unrealistic. Still the Bad Guys joined Superman in trying to break down the veil but even with Superman throwing Ralph against the wall, fists held out to be like a hammer, did little more than give it the tiniest crack.

After the villains returned to the games for the day, Brainiac Five stayed and picked at the crack, unable to widen it but lucky enough to be there when someone on the other side spoke. There were lots of characters on the other side, waiting to be unlocked, and Brainiac Five got to know them quite well over time. They were even quite nice and friendly to Brainiac Five, even dubbing him with the nickname "Brainy".

When Superman came to visit Brainiac Five at the crack in the veil, Superman beamed and asked if he could call him Brainy too and, Brainiac Five could not find it in himself to refuse. He liked having Superman to himself at night again, even if he was sharing him with the people on the other side of the veil. Still this felt much more comfortable than being surrounded by people at the Junction.

One day the Lois Lane Guide Character, that gave the player instructions and game hints after being rescued, came and got Brainiac Five from the crack during game play. She told him that someone was playing the game, beating levels one through three and currently on four, meaning that Brainiac Five would have to fight Superman soon.

Brainiac Five felt sick. He didn't want to fight but he knew if he didn't he could risk his game being unplugged.

"That's not why I brought to here," Lois hissed at him when Brainiac Five moved to go where the other Brainiacs waited to be summoned. "Look at who's playing."

Moving to the edge of where they could see the screen but not be seen by the player, Brainiac Five wondered if he had a virus. On the other side of the screen was him. Obviously not him-him but someone who looked exactly like him, from the green skin and magenta eyes to the Brainiac emblem on his forehead and chest.

Part of Brainiac Five wanted to fly, for he was the only character except Superman who could even though he didn't know why, up to the screen and demand answers but he reasonably knew that would definitely get the game unplugged.

There was music Brainiac Five never heard before and he realized that it meant that the player had defeated Brainiac Four. He prepared himself to fight but, unlike how the Bad Guys had described to him, he didn't feel a sudden adrenaline to rush into battle. Instead his outlined started to glow purple, just like Lois' outline did after being rescued.

Brainiac Five was not a villain; he was a guide.

Suddenly Brainiac Five knew exactly what to do. He joined Superman on screen and congratulated him on defeating his "evil ancestors" but he needed his help "in the future".

Together Brainiac Five and Superman played a mini game to "power" the Time Bubble and once they had collected enough points they used the Time Bubble to go to the future and the veil came down.

All around them now stood the owners of the voices Brainiac Five had longed to meet; Saturn Girl, Lightning Lad, Triplicate Girl, Bouncing Boy, Phantom Girl and Timber Wolf. It only look him a moment to realize he shared matching rings and belt buckles with them and he hoped the player wouldn't see him smile.

The player beat the bonus level as easily as the Brainiacs and the game's sky dropped confetti on them and they danced in celebration as they were programmed to do.

"See, I told you, you weren't a villain," said Superman but it wasn't the Superman Brainiac Five knew. It was the one on the other side of the screen with the other him.

"Well don't expect me to dance about it," the player Brainiac Five seemed to be blushing and Game Brainiac Five could have sworn the other Superman was moving in to kiss player Brainiac Five's cheek when the "Game Over" icon blocked his vision.