05/12/14

I've hit a wall with the next chapter... Help!

Chapter 5

Slowly Clark answered the door again; unable to apologize or make an excuse with the way Alexis was now glaring at him.

"Alexis Luthor, I work for the government," Alexis tried again. "May I use your phone?"

"We were about to sit down to dinner," Clark lied.

"Oh boy," Alexis pushed the door further open, forcing Clark to take a step back.

Causing Clark a small panic attack, Imra stepped out into the hallway but luckily there were no robots behind her, "Can we help you?"

"Just need to use your phone ma'am," Alexis smiled politely.

"Of course," Imra smiled in return, "It's in the kitchen."

With the robot, Clark mentally screamed as Alexis walked toward Imra. He followed quickly behind; relieved when they went into the kitchen the robot was not there.

"It's odd not to have a personal phone in this day and age," Imra commented, leading Alexis to the house phone.

"Mine was in my car and it was eat- stolen," Alexis explained, picking up the phone and looking a little unclear on how to use it.

Just when Clark was wondering where the robot went something bumped into his back and though he didn't want to look he did, finding the robot behind him. He stared at the robot and the robot stared back at him and Clark had to suppress a silent scream.

"I need to use the bathroom," Clark loudly announced and backed out of the kitchen, forcing the robot to walk backward to be trampled. As soon as he was in the hall he turned and pushed the robot up the stairs to his bedroom but still managing to hear Alexis comment on what an odd boy Clark was.

Once in his bedroom, Clark sat the robot on his bed, "Now you stay here, no following. I go; you stay."

Though the robot stared at him in a confused manner, he didn't stand to follow when Clark walked out of the room and closed the door.

Oddly once Clark was downstairs he heard the sound of something scampering and despite Clark's pleas they didn't have a pet. He followed the sound and saw a flash of green move around the corner of the hallway.

In an attempt to be silent, Clark floated across the hall, keeping his feet low to look like he was walking if Alexis popped up around the corner instead of the green whatever it was. Landing on his feet, he peeked around the corner and almost shouted.

Under the kitchen table, scurrying like a mouse was the robot's arm, walking around with its hand, the fingers like spider legs. The top of the arm tapped the chair the robot had been sitting in, which made the girls look around.

Clark hurried into the kitchen and tucked the chair under the table, and then another chair, trying to trap the arm.

"So," Clark tucked in another chair, looking at Alexis. "Did your call go through okay?"

"Yes," Alexis said sourly, it must have not gone well.

"That's great," Clark tucked in the last chair. "Well, hope you have a good night."

Though Alexis frowned at him, he told Clark to do the same and Imra showed Alexis the way back out.

As soon as they were out of the kitchen, Clark pulled out a chair and grabbed the arm. He waited until the front door close and rushed toward the stairs.

When there was another knock on the door, Clark threw the arm upstairs and went to answer it.

Now Alexis was smiling in a satisfied manner, holding something behind her back, "Kent, right? I have something that belongs to you." She brought her arm forward to show Clark's missing glasses in her hand.

"Oh you found Clark's glasses," Imra smiled. "He's been looking for those for days."

"Funny, they were found this morning at the power plant," Alexis kept hold of the glasses, even when Clark held out his hand for them. "They're in awfully good condition to have been missing for days."

"Just lucky I guess," Imra continued to smile.

Alexis observed their faces a moment before surrendering the glasses, "I suppose so. I'll be seeing you two around."

Both Clark and Imra held their breath as Alexis got into her car and drove away, sighing once she was out of sight.

"That was too close," Imra sighed.

"Why didn't you just convince her to leave?" Clark tapped against his temple for emphasis.

"People who work in the government have special training to resist telepaths, I didn't want to risk her realizing we had something to hide unless I absolutely had to," Imra explained. "Especially since I don't know how strong her mind is."

"What if more people from the government come," asked Clark. "What if they see the robot or figure out who I am?"

"That won't happen," Imra assured him. "I'd turn their minds into soup first."

Though Clark knew Imra was trying to make him feel better, Clark seriously hoped it would never come to that. He knew Imra tried to respect people's minds and forcing her to use her power in such a way would definitely be against her character.

They headed upstairs to check on the robot, which was still sitting on the bed and had just finished reattaching his arm. The robot looked whole again.

"Can you read his mind, find out where he's from," Clark asked.

"I tried before but all I got was numbers," Imra shook her head as if it gave her a headache just thinking about it.

"Well, I guess we need to re-educate him, get him to talk," Clark went over to his pile of comic books. "Maybe then he can tell us himself."

Imra smiled at him, "Any Superman comics in there?"

"Just the ones Chuck lent me," Clark blushed.

Still Imra smiled and Clark blushed more. They went and sat on the bed with the robot, each on either side of him, and began to show him words from the comic books, telling him the stories from within their bindings.

"And this is Superman," Imra pulled out a comic from the pile, much to Clark's dismay.

"Superman?" the robot repeated.

Imra nodded, "He started out just like you; crash landed here with no idea who he was but now he helps people with the powers he's been given. He's a hero."

The robot looked at the Action comic and then the next comic in the pile caught his eye of a giant robot destroying a city.

"That's Atamo, the metal menace," Imra explained, "He's a bad guy; you don't want to be like him." She covered the Atamo comic with the Superman one. "You're like Superman."

"Superman," the robot repeated, looking more at the cover now.

With a smile, Imra ruffled the robot's hair, "Such a little Brainiac, you'll have all of this learned in no time."

"We need to start calling him something," Clark commented, "Why not Brainiac?"

"That's not cute at all," Imra frowned.

"He's a robot, he's not supposed to be cute," Clark argued.

"Pick something else," Imra insisted.

Clark huffed but thought it over a bit more, "What about Brainy?"

"Brainy?" Imra questioned.

"Yeah, like Brainiac but shorter and cuter," Clark teased.

Pausing to think it over, Imra nodded, "I like it." She turned to the robot, which had been flipping through the comic book pages as they were talking. "What do you think?"

The robot looked at her in a confused manner.

"For a name," Clark tried to explain. "What would you think if we called you Brainy?"

Again the robot looked confused.

"Like I'm Imra," Imra suggested to herself before pointing to Clark, "And this is Clark," she pointed to the robot, "and you could be Brainy."

After a moment the robot pointed at Imra, "Imra," then he pointed at Clark, "Clark," and then he pointed to himself, "Brainy?"

Imra smiled and nodded, "Yes, would you like that?"

Slowly the robot imitated Imra's nod but not her smile.

"It's nice to meet you Brainy," Imra gave the confused robot, now Brainy, a gentle hug.

Luckily the robot Brainy was content looking at the comics while Imra and Clark took the chance to eat dinner for real. By the time Clark returned upstairs for bed Brainy was sitting on the ground, surrounded by comics and seeming to be done with nearly all of them.

"Must be a speed reader," Clark joked, moving around the room to get ready for bed. If the robot ever looked up from the comics while Clark changed, Clark didn't notice. "Are you going to be okay there tonight while I sleep?"

Now Brainy did look up at him, seeming confused again.

"You know, sleep?" Clark asked, folding his hands together and resting his hands on them and closing his eyes a moment. When he opened his eyes again, Brainy was still staring at him with his confused look. "Do you take time out to recharge?"

With Brainy still staring at him, Clark sighed and turned out the light, "If you want to keep reading use those lights in your eyes from before but if you want someplace to lay down just let me know."

Absently Clark floated over to his bed and crawled in with a sigh, half wondering if he should call his folks and tell them they had a guest at the farm or if he should just wait until they returned in a couple of days. His mind was just at the point where things were getting fuzzy when he felt a movement on the bed.

When Clark opened his eyes he saw that Brainy had come over and crawled into the bed next to him, possibly imitating him again. There was another room the house had to rent that Brainy could use just across the hall but Clark was too tired to push Brainy out only to have him crawl right back in. He sighed and told Brainy to sleep well and as he watched Brainy close his eyes he absently thought that robots could be rather cute after all.