@cyclone-rachel -- Happy birthday Rachel! I, predictably, have written brainysupes for you. Thank you for always being a good friend and such a wonderful person all around. I’m proud to call someone as kind and friendly as you a friend. Hope you have an excellent birthday, because that’s what you deserve.
Aegis
Brainy winced, cradling his finger tenderly. He was in his lab, trying to make a few adjustments to the time bubble and had been handling his tools carelessly, resulting in him almost singeing his finger off. Luckily, he only burned it slightly, but it still hurt.
He heard the doors slide open and a “Hey Brainy, Saturn Girl said you were in here,” before hiding his hand behind his back.
“Superman,” he acknowledged, straitening up. “What can I do for you?”
“Could you check if there has been any suspicious activity on Takron-Galtos?” Superman walked up to him as he talked and Brainy took a quick step back.
Perhaps one that was too obvious, as his friend’s face dropped to a frown.
“Of course, I can,” Brainy rushed on, “is there any particular reason you would like me to check? I did recently write a report on the improvement to the prison’s efficiency a while ago. It might have edged on being a tad too critical but I do think it was important to improve the prison.” At this point, he usually expected the other person he was conversing with to drop off in engagement or maybe even interrupt him, but Superman was nodding along, listening attentively.
“You’re probably right, Brainy.” There was a slight pause, the unsaid ‘as always’ filling the space between. “Especially since I nabbed one of Alexis’ goons sneaking nearby. He wouldn’t admit he was working for her but I’m pretty sure that’s the case.”
“Oh. Alexis.” Brainy didn’t bother to keep his displeasure out of his voice. “You want me to make sure that she’s still locked up.”
“Right. And uh, Brainy?” Superman stepped forward and Brainy took another step back. “Okay. You’re acting weird. What’re you hiding behind your back?”
“I’m not – ” He saw Superman’s crossed arms and ‘don’t-even-try’ expression. Sighing, he brought out his hand. “It’s nothing, really. I just burned myself.”
“Brainy!” Judging by the way Superman sounded, he was probably going to blow this out of proportion. “When did this happen?”
“Just now.”
“And you’re just standing here? We’ve got to run it under cold water.”
“It’s fine, Superman. I’ve assessed it myself and it’s not even a second-degree burn, I was going to just continue my work. Or perhaps I could just start on the checks on Talkron-Galtos.”
Superman, however, was not going to have any of it and began dragging Brainy by the wrist. “Alright, now where’s the sink, again?”
Knowing that Superman wasn’t going to let up, Brainy reminded him that the lab had a sufficient supply of distilled water and a first aid kid. The Kryptonian located the supplies in three seconds and had sat Brainy down on a stool in another two and begun tending to him.
For someone who could break machines in two quite easily, Superman’s hands were gentle when he followed Brainy’s instructions on how to help him. If Brainy was going to sit down for this, he might as well not have to go through Superman’s more primitive remedies and actually use modern medicine to heal him.
“Wow, that works pretty quickly.” He inspected Brainy’s hand, which rested atop his palm. There was almost no indication of a burn anymore and Brainy could only feel a cooling sensation at his fingertip, rather than pain. “Wish I could bring some of that home – yes, I know I can’t Brainy.”
“Fortunately for you, it takes more than a measly laser to burn you, so you won’t be needing it in any case.”
He only realised how much bite he put into that when he felt Superman’s hand squeeze his own. “Sorry, I didn’t mean – ”
“It’s fine, Brainy.” Superman pulled up another stool and Brainy felt the empty space where his hand was. “I can guess what’s going on and why you wanted to hide it.”
He opened his mouth, before shutting it again. Well, what was he going to say? ‘Yes, you are correct. I didn’t want you to see how easily how pathetic being so easily hurt makes me feel.’ He had too much pride to say that.
Brainy wasn’t one to shy away from complaining but this felt different. Saying something just made it all too real. He was eternally grateful that he wasn’t under the original Brainiac’s control anymore but he didn’t ask for this either.
“I am…still getting used to this organic body.” That’s as much as he wanted to say to Clark in this moment.
“Yeah…”
Did he always feel like Superman could read him? Or was this awareness of it just another symptom of his departure from being an android? Either way, it made keeping eye contact a little more difficult.
“It’s not the same, and it’s not permanent for me but I do know how it feels like to lose my…powers.” Brainy understood the hesitation to say ‘powers’. They both were born and grew up with their abilities. They were a part of them and not having them was like losing a whole piece of themselves. “We can talk about it if you want.”
“I know.” He knew every single way in which Superman could be stripped of his powers. But none that could take away his spirit. Which was what it felt like was happening to Brainy.
He didn’t want to let his misery seep into Superman. He was touched, really, by his concern but he didn’t think he wanted to talk about this. Not yet, anyway.
Brainy got off from the chair, heading straight for the computer by his lab bench. “I assure you, I will talk to you if I need to. Right now, I need to pursue this Alexis case.”
He felt a light pressure on his shoulder and turned to look at Clark despite himself, finding him staring at warm eyes. “I mean it, Brainy. If you want to talk, I’m here, anytime.”
Superman murmured a ‘see you later’ before departing. Brainy clenched his hands into fists. It was all he could do to stop himself from reaching up and taking Clark’s hand into his but he needed to get back to work.
Work was something Brainy could do, whatever form he was in.
xxxx
He openly enjoyed the look of delight on Clark’s face, as he stepped in front of Alexis’ laser guns, his latest invention – the shield belt – protecting both him and the man behind him. After an overwhelming victory on recapturing the escapee, Superman pulled him into a massive hug.
It was as Brainy predicted; working definitely brought him satisfactory results.
Okay but in one of the final scenes of the losh animated series where Brainy takes back control of his mind, it seems like it’s Clark that’s doing most of the talking with Brainy and having their deep/touching moments. It just made me laugh thinking that Kell-El is probably just sharing that body being like ‘Okaaaay, I get it, I get it, can we get this over with now?’ or ‘Get a room. Or can I get out of this room...body. Whatever.’
oh I was just recently thinking about that (the text post you just made) and I came to the conclusion that whatever Clark was saying, Kell would have meant too? Like he'd have to agree to those words, even if Clark ultimately said them. But your theory is funnier, so I want to go with that instead.
Great minds think alike, haha!
Yeah, I mean like you said in your tags it was really weird and I feel like it was kind of rushed buuut yes it does give us some good stuff. It would depend on how the mind fuse actually works but I think that’s way more detail than was actually put into the idea. I feel like it must have been more like ‘what if we could fuse both supes in the final battle?’ ‘okay sure’ [Superman -dundun- and Superman X -dundun- DNA DIGIVOLVE TO ..*insert funky digimon music* --- SUPERMENMON]
Also I will thoroughly admit that I didn’t actually realise the lines in the final battle paralleled the lines in Brainy’s simulation in S201 until I saw @fairyroses ‘s gifsets way back that or I forgot, so was still mind blown. I failed as a shipper, I realise So yeah, I went to stare at the gifs again cause they’re pretty. Then I thought well since it’s clearly supposed to be a parallel that I missed or forgot aklsdjkslasjd then it seems to make the most sense that at least the ‘Brainy may not have been human, but he had the biggest heart I had ever seen’ and the ‘he was a hero, my hero!’ lines were all Clark’s.
Not even factoring the fact that those two lines just don’t sound like Kell-El. So if he did approve too I imagine it being like:
Kell: This guy is stepping on us, how dare he - I say we insult -
Clark: BRAINY HAS THE BIGGEST HEART -
Kell: ...fine we can go with that.
---
Clark: He was a hero -
Kell: Yeah, we got off on the wrong foot but he was definitely a true legionnaire, a true-
so, do you think animated-LOSH Brainy also made himself taller in those simulations with Clark?
Ooof well from what we saw in the actual episode it appears that he hadn’t. At first glance, at least. It’s entirely possible that when he made his real body ‘mature’ he did so to try and match Clark’s height (since he hadn’t known that he would bring back an older Clark later on). the losh comic does imply that Coluans grow, yet they can backup their memories like how does that work? Can they backup to a different body. HM?
Brainy wouldn’t need to do it to make Clark trust him so if he did make himself taller in a simulation I guess it’d just be so it would be easier to reach him for a kiss or something lol
This makes me wonder just how many simulations he had done. Was there one -as you suggest - where the heights were swapped? Maybe powers were swapped? Were there really ones where they just went to the movies? Maybe he relived a mission? Maybe he simulated going back with Clark to the Kent farm? hold that thought, that sounds like a could drabble collection
