Simon... Wait did he say Psimon?
The first of his senses that came back to Gar was his sense of touch. He was able to feel a liquid pressing all around him like he was in a pool or a hot tub.
He could also feel a more solid pressure that went from his face to around his head, it pushed what Gar assumed was air to him as he felt a gentle breeze across his lips and tickling his nose as he inhaled and exhaled reflexively.
Gar tried to open his eyes and move his hand to his face to take the mask off, but his body didn't respond at all.
So naturally the next thing Gar felt was blind panic, not just because his eyes wouldn't open but because his breathing didn't even have the decency to increase to give him more oxygen to help with his panic.
[So, I'm sticking with BLIND PANIC!] Gar shouted futilely in his mind.
Finally calming down after a few minutes (Hours), Gar tried to hear anything before he remembered, [You can't hear in a tube of water dummy, that's how Dare Devil is able to shut off his super hearing and sleep at night.]
[Ok, let's Beatrix Kiddo this crap and start small, move toe.]
As Gar was doing his best to get a little piggy to move, his thoughts went to the last thing he remembered and that was a brief fight where he felt like a child going against someone Mike Tyson would respectfully call "Thir, yeth Thir".
A spear sticking out of his chest and a vocal lesson a sailor would stick around to pick up some new curse words from rounded out the last of his memories before waking up like this.
[Were they trying to heal me from the spear wound?]
[Was I in some sort of Bacta tank like in Star Wars or maybe the Dragon Ball Z healing tank Vegeta put Goku in before the last fight with Freeza?]
Yep, Manga too, Gar's nerdiness knew no bounds after shutting himself off from actual fellow teens as friends.
Out of nowhere every fiber of his being froze, interrupting his thoughts with a sense of danger.
Gar felt it approach and get more tangible and a large part of his mind railed against his inability to do anything as he held his thoughts still hoping it wouldn't notice them.
After a time, Gar felt the danger start to recede like a tide leaving the shore and he gave a mental sigh as his body was still as a rock.
Suddenly, Gar felt a slight pop like someone opened a can of Pringles then {Man that guy just creeps me out}.
Hearing something other than his own thoughts for the first time since waking up, Gar felt some actual relief to have some interaction other than his own mental voice.
After that short outburst of the 'creeps' all Gar could occasionally hear was some numbers and incoherent mumbo jumbo about cells and reaction rates, before even that was gone.
After what he could only assume was a long time, Gar again heard the voice that let him cling to his sanity and banish the fear of being alone and unable to move forever.
Granted, one-way communication wasn't much but he would take what he could get for now.
It vaguely reminded Gar of his teenage years when he was in trouble and had to listen to the newest speech from his parents about how they knew he was better than his recent actions, but in this case, he wanted to reply. Unlike when he was a teen and just accepted what his parents said as truth and did not want to talk back at all (lies).
{Let's start with checking last night's readouts for change.} Then the voice got quieter as if whispering until Gar could only pick up random words here and there.
With a faint but hopeful thought entering Gar's head, he slowly pushed his thoughts out toward (he hoped) the voice, to see if his guess was accurate.
Feeling a wet sensation for lack of a better analogy, Gar could now hear the voice much more clearly.
{The Co2 is slightly erratic compared to the norm, but it shouldn't cause any issues. The paralyzing agent is working just as we were told it would even with the increase of Martian cells. My Queen will be happy with my work, I'm sure she will see my contribution and allow me to serve in a more personal capacity.}
The following thoughts were more images than words, the dark-skinned female that played a domineering role in these fantasies was familiar to Gar for some reason.
Pulling away from the wet sensation and losing access to the thoughts he was hearing; Gar followed his familiar trail back to where it originated into what he assumed was his head and he started to ponder this new revelation.
[I am telepathic!] That thought caused Gar to blank out for a bit as one thought overrode the other time and time again until they started to slow down so he could attempt to make sense of them.
[So, when he was thinking loud or forcefully, I could hear him but if it was just normal thinking, I had to get closer with my own mind, hmm this is cool and frightening at the same time.]
Desperately Gar wanted more information, so he began to reach out again and felt his mind connect again.
Ever so gently, so he wouldn't feel the intrusion, Gar tried to read his surface thoughts.
His name was Mido Gamal, a scientist who is the self-proclaimed greatest bio engineer yet to be known.
In his opinion, the idiot who claimed first in all the classes they shared in college got what was coming to him by screwing up so bad that he turned himself into a giant green rage monster.
The fact that Mido was placed closer to the bottom of those same classes didn't worry him as he felt he wasn't properly motivated until the Gracious Queen Bee requested his expert help.
What Gar found interesting in these thoughts was that anything concerning this "Queen Bee" was bold, like all his thoughts were in italics, but these were in bold and a size bigger than the rest.
[I will need more experience to understand what I'm seeing.] Gar told himself.
Shaking him out of his introspection, was a loud thought {That freak Simon should be coming around for his information gathering to report to the Great Queen soon. How can she stand the presence of a twerp with a see-through skull} he quickly stopped what he was doing and punched himself in the face with as much force as he could muster {How dare you think you know better than The Great Queen herself!}
Seeing that thought Gar quickly pulled back to his starting place in his head and trembled with shock.
[Now I remember who Queen Bee is, and Psimon (Not Simon) who works for her.]
She ruled a small country in Africa and was vicious in her handling of the populace, allowing nothing to remain before her rule and any independent thought was crushed ruthlessly.
Remembering the episodes of Young Justice that featured Psimon as a powerful Telekinetic and Telepath, Gar knew someone like him who just woke up, would have no chance against a monster like that.
Not long after that, Gar felt the sense of danger getting close again so he just relaxed as much as he could and kept his thoughts slow but trying to listen to his surroundings.
Psimon entered the lab and briefly glanced around focusing on the tube of liquid that held something in the shape of a late-age teen with green skin floating in it.
Turning to the scientist in the room he said "Report!" then looking closer he noticed the bloody nose and instantly knew what happened.
After quickly reading Mido's thoughts he smirked and said, "Thoughts like those are the reason your Queen had me force your predecessor to cut off his genitals and eat them as he bled to death in front of the rest of you as a reminder to think only what Queen Bee allows you to."
Not sure if Psimon was referring to his thought of Psimon himself or his salacious thoughts towards the Queen being the reason for the reminder of that nightmare example, Mido lowered his eyes and respectfully said "Yes Psimon!"
"The only thing to report is a slight deficiency in the new batch of oxygen we received but it hasn't resulted in any changes. Brain activity showed a slight abnormality yesterday but has not repeated since. I attributed that to the quick aging process used to move the specimen to his prime age and the inclusion of more Martian blood we collected from the hero known as Martian Manhunter."
Turning to look at the pod Psimon said, "I don't sense anything, but I'll do a deep sweep to see if it has grown any comprehension".
Hearing he planned to enter his mind, Gar pulled back to what he felt were the edges of his mind and placed his mental body into as tight a ball as he could and leaned against the red wall he felt at his back.
Seeing a wave of energy coming his way, Gar tried to make himself smaller by leaning back and then, he stumbled backward until he fell on his butt staring at a red wall in front of him.
In the laboratory holding the pod, Psimon said "I scanned the mind of this thing and still feel nothing, it's just an empty husk. Go clean yourself up and pray your Queen is in a good mood so I don't have to report your excess thoughts as a distraction from finding fault with me."
Not waiting for a reply Simon turned and walked out to continue gathering information for his report.