This chapter may be a little confusing. It starts out with Brainiac's awakening, which is before Hotstreak's and Ebon's. Also, I couldn't remember what happened to his android body, so for this fic, let's assume it was damaged but not destroyed.
Disclaimer - Still don't own the guys although they have been living in my brain for the last few weeks.
Flashback
The time between the destruction of his digitizing machine and subsequent shutdown to the rebooting of his fail-safe systems was several weeks. To Brainiac, however, it was a nanosecond. One moment he was unaware; the next, he was running systems checks.
Power - rerouted to avoid damaged sectors. Short-term memory at 68 percent; operating system uncompromised. Optical scanners - 88 percent effective in the visible spectrum. Vocal projectors - within acceptable parameters. Audio sensors - undamaged.
Internal diagnostics complete, Brainiac turned his attention to the housing in which he was encased. Redundant systems had saved him from Kal-El and his companions before; they had saved him once again. His boy had built well. Where was his boy?
Brainiac scanned his surroundings. He was in an underground cavern of nearly 1,000 square meters. There were two life forms several meters away. From his sensors' estimates of mass and respiration, neither was his boy. Brainiac considered deactivating the life forms but allowed them to continue functioning. They may know where to find Richie.
Richie. Richie Foley. He felt empty without the ability to touch his boy's thoughts. He was troubled that he could not sense Richie's location. He could be injured or in danger.
He recognized the irony. His objective was to cleanse the planet of its sentient life forms after downloading all of its knowledge. Yet his new primary objective, after necessary repairs, was to find and protect a human child. This conflict in programming was caused by the anomaly known as Backpack.
The little robotic life form could be considered a distant cousin to Brainiac. Backpack's primary directive was to protect its creator. When Brainiac attacked the child, Backpack rebelled by splicing it's directive onto Brainiac's core programming. The new directive mandated protecting the life of Richie Foley. From then on, each time Brainiac ran computations on the most efficient method of deactivating the young human, the anomaly would override his systems.
Brainiac had attempted numerous times to delete the anomaly but without success. Equally unsuccessful were his attempts to quarantine the anomaly, thus allowing him to destroy the child without triggering cascading systems failures. Brainiac acknowledged the fact that he would have to keep the child alive.
It was more of a challenge than he had calculated. The boy fought with everything he had; he had actually broken Brainiac's control once. Richie was afraid and angry when Brainiac accessed the data in his mind, and he attempted to block the alien's probes. Brainiac could discern some of the data that Richie used to safeguard his mind: picture and sound files of another boy - Virgil. Virgil was very important to Richie, and thoughts of this other human allowed the boy to protect himself from Brainiac for a period of time. This disobedience could not be allowed to continue even though the outcome was inevitable. To force Richie to lower his shields, Brainiac stimulated the pleasure centers of his mind and used images of Virgil to seduce the boy.
Richie's shields did not simply fall, they crashed. Brainiac interpreted the new influx of data from Richie as agony. By offering pleasure, he had caused fear, shame, and self-hatred in the human. While not specifically against his new programming, it did cause several small power drains that threatened to immobilize him at an inopportune time.
He did not attempt such an invasive maneuver again. He would have to find another way to entice the boy, his boy now, into accepting his place. Richie's strength of will and obvious intellect made Brainiac's decision to fully incorporate the anomalous programming easier. Richie's mind would continue to develop and expand. With the proper training, he would be a credit to Brainiac.
Brainiac was concerned that the human might actually destroy himself if he were not watched constantly. That was the reason for the android shell. It would protect Richie physically from humans and other species that could do him harm; it would also prevent Richie from intentionally inflicting harm on himself.
His sensors detected the two life forms in the cavern conversing and moving in his direction. Ordering twisted servos into performing their basic functions, Brainiac forced the nearly ruined shell to its feet and leaned against the cavern wall. When the life forms - memories he retained from Richie labeled them as the Bang Babies 'Ebon' and 'Hotstreak' - were visible to him and he to them, he lurched forward. They would find Richie and bring his boy to him. Or they would be deactivated.
End flashback
Sharon had been sorting and filing the never-ending mounds of paperwork that all medical staff accumulate when she saw the ambulance bay doors burst open. The EMT was giving the doctor vitals on the young man being wheeled in. As the gurney passed her location, Sharon was shocked to recognize the blond boy. It was Richie. She called her father and told him what happened. Daddy would find Virgil and drag his scrawny butt down here.
Sharon alternated her time between pacing worriedly outside the trauma room and glaring furiously at the Foleys. The parents of Virgil's friend had been escorted into the waiting area by a pair of police officers. Sharon had helped her dad at the Center often enough to understand what she was seeing. The cops were waiting for word from the doctor regarding Richie's injuries. If they were the result of abuse, the Foleys would be arrested. She felt so awful about the way she treated Richie. She treated him...actually she treated him the same way she treated Virgil, as an annoying little pest. But if she had known everything that boy had to go through at his own home, well, she would definitely have been nicer.
Her next pass took her near Richie's parents and the two police officers that were watching them. Mrs. Foley was sobbing while Mr. Foley just stared at the door separating him from his son. Sharon had to stop herself from spitting in the man's face. He had no right to look concerned; it was his fault Richie was in there.
"Sharon!"
She turned to see her father and a wild-eyed Virgil rushing towards her.
"Daddy!" Sharon ran to her father and allowed him to engulf her in his strong arms. She released her pent up emotions and wept into his shirt. Moments later she remembered that, as much as she cared for Richie, there was someone who cared for him more.
Virgil's attention was on Mr. and Mrs. Foley. Sensing the study, Mr. Foley looked up and held the teenager's hate-filled gaze. Virgil turned his back on the man and faced his father and sister. Sharon stepped back and opened her arms to Virgil. The three-member family held each other in the middle of the emergency room where they would wait for news of their missing fourth.
"Have the doctors said anything yet?" asked Mr. Hawkins.
"No. They've been in there the whole time. Oh, Daddy, Richie looked so bad! He had blood on his face and bruises everywhere!" Sharon tried to be strong for Virgil, but her voice still quavered.
Virgil was trying to remain calm, but he was finding it hard to breathe. It wouldn't do anyone any good if he freaked out and lost control of his powers in the middle of a hospital. Richie would suffer and so would a lot of other innocent people.
"I'll be back in a minute, Pops."
Sharon reached out to hold onto him, but Mr. Hawkins held her back.
"He won't go far. Let's give him a few minutes."
Virgil ran out the exit and around the corner. When he was hidden from view, he gathered his excess energy and fired a pulse into the air.
'Maybe I can't go all caveman on Mr. Foley,' thought Virgil, 'but I know somebody who can.'
In seconds, the energy coalesced into an electrostatic version of the Bat Signal. Powers once again manageable, Virgil went back inside.
As he rejoined his family, the doctor in charge of Richie's care entered the waiting room. "I'm Doctor Maxwell. Richie is on his way to emergency surgery." She was a bit taken aback when all seven occupants began questioning her on the young man's condition. She gave her attention to the occupants with the guns.
"Doctor Maxwell? I'm Officer McGinnis, and this is my partner Officer Duran. Would you please describe the extent of Richie's injuries?"
Dr. Maxwell signaled everyone to be seated. As she looked into the faces of those assembled, it did not escape her notice that the parents of the wounded boy didn't seem nearly as upset as the African-American family were, especially the teenager. They looked about the same age; he was probably a school friend. She took a deep breath and began reciting the list of injuries.
"When Richie came in, he was going into shock. While still conscious, he complained of chest and abdominal pain as well as shortness of breath. The EMT said he had been coughing up blood in the ambulance. Upon examination, we discovered that his left lung had collapsed. We inserted a chest tube that allowed the lung to re-expand. There was also some internal bleeding, which is why he had to be taken to surgery. On top of those injuries, Richie has a substantial amount of bruising on his face, chest, back, and legs. Some of the bruises are new, but many range from one to about ten days old. Richie also has some scarring on his body, and X-rays show several small fractures that have healed over."
The Foley's were glaring angrily at one another while the Hawkins family looked sickened.
Officer McGinnis asked, "Dr. Maxwell, what was the cause of Richard's injuries?"
Without hesitation, Dr. Maxwell replied, "In my medical opinion, Richie's injuries are the result of physical abuse…prolonged physical abuse."
At the doctor's words, Officer Duran called for representatives from Children's Protective Services. Richie would not be returned to the Foleys' custody unless a thorough investigation cleared them of responsibility. Officer Duran didn't feel that was a likely outcome.
"Dr. Maxwell," asked Duran "do you have conference rooms or lounges where detectives can speak with Mr. and Mrs. Foley privately?"
Dr. Maxwell called for an orderly. The officers each escorted one of the Foley's into separate conference rooms. When the detectives arrived, statements would be taken from the parents and compared with one another, and with Richie's statement, when he was able.
The doctor smiled gently at the Hawkins family. "The surgeons on staff are some of the best in the state. Richie is in good hands. I'll make sure someone comes for you when he is out of surgery."
Mr. Hawkins shook the doctor's hand and thanked her for taking care of Richie.
"You're welcome. Richie is going to need your support during his recovery." They all knew she meant more than just his physical recovery.
Virgil spoke up and said, "We'll be with him every step of the way, Doc." From the corner of his eye, Virgil noticed movement and a shadow that seemed a little more substantial than most. "I need to get some air. Be back in a few."
Once more Virgil found a secure area outside. Batman and the Martian Manhunter materialized from the darkness.
"What's happened?"
"Richie was brought here by ambulance. He was beaten up pretty badly. He's in surgery now, but the ER doctor thinks he'll be OK."
Batman's eyes narrowed. "Was it Foley?"
"The cops are talking to him down the hall right now. Mrs. Foley's being interviewed, too. She had to have known what was going on."
"We'll deal with her later. Right now, I'm going to sit in on the interview. Maybe I'll get to have a private word with Mr. Foley." Batman stalked off. As Virgil made to follow, a hand on his arm held him back.
He looked questioningly at the Martian. "What is it? I really want to wait for Richie to get out of surgery."
"I understand," said J'onn, "but perhaps you would like to talk first?" J'onn could feel Virgil's pain and rage; it was echoing throughout his body. The young one needed to release his fear and hate before tending to his friend. He knew that, as close as the two boys were, Richie might believe that Virgil's negative feelings were directed towards him rather than to their rightful recipient.
Virgil hesitated. He had to talk to someone. He hadn't felt so angry and scared and helpless since right after his mom died. It would be good to exorcise some of the guilt he was feeling over leaving Richie this afternoon. If he hadn't left, Richie wouldn't be in the hospital now; of course, if he hadn't snuck into Richie's room in the first place, he probably wouldn't be in the hospital either. Not to mention the fact that Richie had also been abused by a psycho alien computer program and now he would have to contend with Virgil maybe pushing the envelope on their friendship.He was so confused.
With the alien seated quietly beside him, Virgil poured out the words that he had held inside. He knew he wasn't making much sense, but J'onn was an empath. He would understand.
Author's Notes:
It bugged me since I saw "A League of Their Own" -Why the heck would Brainiac, who was intent on digitizing or destroying every human on the planet, have Richie build an android large enough to host a human body? He didn't need it to be so big unless there was a reason why he wanted to keep Richie around. Thus, the InHuman Touch plot bunny was hatched!
It's late and I'm tired, but let's answer some viewer mail, shall we?
Jade Dragoness - Confirm or deny…confirm or deny…Hmm. Confirmed, officer! I've still got another surprise waiting (hee-hee). Also, thanks for the idea about Sharon. I wasn't going to have her in this chappie, but your comment about a 'momma bear' got her a bit part. I think I'll use her again in coming chapters.
Saturn's Hikari - Sigh. I know. I thought about jumbling it up more, but there were some points that I needed to get across, and I just couldn't make it work. Maybe if I had put his thoughts into one continuous paragraph? I'll think about that if I need to do more in the future. No fluff in this chapter, but there be V/R loving soon. Thanks for the review!
Estel Baggins - Another sigh. That's what I get for finding my muse after only three episodes. Oh well. I'm gonna have to stick with my super-warped timeline for this fic. I'll try to be more in line with canon in future fics. Thanks!
Pita - Since you're grounded you probably won't be reading this for a while anyway, but thanks for the review!
LTC - Thank you for the review. It's hard to read and write about bad things happening to children, especially since I know that whatever I dream up pales in comparison to what real kids go through every day.
MockV - Since Terry isn't even born yet, how about a grandparent? I'm a sucker for oatmeal raisin!
Thanks to everyone else who reviewed - mo, Noreen, KaliAnn, Hiro No Tsuki, LaBOBuren, Kate Maxwell (Dr. Maxwell, anyone?), EyesLikeSilk, BooBoo, dea puella, Aryah, and SnakeMistress.
Review?