Now I’m going to tell you one last time. Get. Out. Of. My. Head!
A torrent of data ripped free from his mind, temporarily blinding him and shorting out several sensors, leaving him aware of nothing but a white fog which slowly began to fade.
His eyes opened and Brainiac 5 found himself in a darkened room staring up at a blank white ceiling. That didn’t make any sense, according to his memory files, they’d last been in space somewhere in the vicinity of Colu. Unless he’d been offline for much longer than he’d calculated, he should have been in the Legion medical bay. He closed his eyes again, intending to run a system scan just to be on the safe side, but rather than the familiar streams of code, all he could see were the backs of his own eyelids.
With a sudden stab of panic, Brainiac 5 realised what had been nagging at the back of his mind ever since he’d opened his eyes: he couldn’t sense any of his systems. There was no comforting data from scans of the area of internal systems checks, just what his eyes and ears could detect. But if he had no sensors online, then how could he even utilise those?
He sat up and brought a hand to his face, deciding that a manual examination of his eyes was in order, but aborted the action as he suddenly notice his hand for the first time. It was pale and obviously human, lacking the familiar protection of his external casing.
“This can’t be happening,” he said, fighting to remain calm in spite of his rising panic. “There has to be a rational explanation.” He examined the other hand then the rest of his body, rolling up the loose grey pants to study his feet and legs and using his hands to brush over his face and hair. There was no doubt about the matter, he was apparently completely and utterly human, possibly even right down to the genetic level, though he was unable to establish that for certain without his scanning devices. Somehow he’d been removed from the middle of a battle, brought here without his knowledge and changed into human form. The first two points alone were highly unusual, but the last was completely impossible. There just wasn’t the technology to alter someone’s physiology on that level.
And as for when he’d been taken... Brainiac 5’s face clouded, his mind casting back to the fight with his ancestor. The battle had been waged in his mind for the most part, as Superman and Kel-El struggled to free him from his ancestor’s control, finally succeeding. But at what cost? Even he’d been uncertain if destroying his ancestor’s influence would free the digitised people and planets. What if he had inadvertently caused the destruction of billions of innocent people? He swallowed hard, that thought and the panic from waking up in this unknown place making him feel decidedly ill. He hadn’t realised that human emotions would have such a strong effect on their bodies. Under other circumstances he’d have been interested in learning more from the situation, but it was clear that he had more important matters to concentrate on at the moment. Namely locating whoever had brought him here and done this to him and finding a way to reverse it and return home.
He swung his legs over the side of the bed and carefully stood up. Though moving around was no different then what he was used to, the absence of his sensors and external casing made him feel particularly vulnerable. He would have to handle it, he’d be back to normal soon enough.
A quick search of the room turned up a primitive Earth device which, after a moment of searching through his memory, he identified it as a flashlight, another ancient Earth object which proved to be a radio, a blank book as well as a collection of writing implements, and several sets of clothing all featuring the same yellow logo.
“All items from 21st century Earth,” he mused aloud, privately glad that the Legion’s interest in that time period as well as Superman’s time with the team had given him enough reason to learn about the distant past; otherwise he would have had little chance of identifying the items at all.
Deciding that the flashlight was the only item he would really need in order to find his way around, Brainiac 5 switched it on after a moment of examination and pushed open the door. The hallway beyond was empty, but as there was only one direction to go there was little choice but to head that way, examining the area with vague interest as he went and keeping an eye out for other people.
A torrent of data ripped free from his mind, temporarily blinding him and shorting out several sensors, leaving him aware of nothing but a white fog which slowly began to fade.
His eyes opened and Brainiac 5 found himself in a darkened room staring up at a blank white ceiling. That didn’t make any sense, according to his memory files, they’d last been in space somewhere in the vicinity of Colu. Unless he’d been offline for much longer than he’d calculated, he should have been in the Legion medical bay. He closed his eyes again, intending to run a system scan just to be on the safe side, but rather than the familiar streams of code, all he could see were the backs of his own eyelids.
With a sudden stab of panic, Brainiac 5 realised what had been nagging at the back of his mind ever since he’d opened his eyes: he couldn’t sense any of his systems. There was no comforting data from scans of the area of internal systems checks, just what his eyes and ears could detect. But if he had no sensors online, then how could he even utilise those?
He sat up and brought a hand to his face, deciding that a manual examination of his eyes was in order, but aborted the action as he suddenly notice his hand for the first time. It was pale and obviously human, lacking the familiar protection of his external casing.
“This can’t be happening,” he said, fighting to remain calm in spite of his rising panic. “There has to be a rational explanation.” He examined the other hand then the rest of his body, rolling up the loose grey pants to study his feet and legs and using his hands to brush over his face and hair. There was no doubt about the matter, he was apparently completely and utterly human, possibly even right down to the genetic level, though he was unable to establish that for certain without his scanning devices. Somehow he’d been removed from the middle of a battle, brought here without his knowledge and changed into human form. The first two points alone were highly unusual, but the last was completely impossible. There just wasn’t the technology to alter someone’s physiology on that level.
And as for when he’d been taken... Brainiac 5’s face clouded, his mind casting back to the fight with his ancestor. The battle had been waged in his mind for the most part, as Superman and Kel-El struggled to free him from his ancestor’s control, finally succeeding. But at what cost? Even he’d been uncertain if destroying his ancestor’s influence would free the digitised people and planets. What if he had inadvertently caused the destruction of billions of innocent people? He swallowed hard, that thought and the panic from waking up in this unknown place making him feel decidedly ill. He hadn’t realised that human emotions would have such a strong effect on their bodies. Under other circumstances he’d have been interested in learning more from the situation, but it was clear that he had more important matters to concentrate on at the moment. Namely locating whoever had brought him here and done this to him and finding a way to reverse it and return home.
He swung his legs over the side of the bed and carefully stood up. Though moving around was no different then what he was used to, the absence of his sensors and external casing made him feel particularly vulnerable. He would have to handle it, he’d be back to normal soon enough.
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“All items from 21st century Earth,” he mused aloud, privately glad that the Legion’s interest in that time period as well as Superman’s time with the team had given him enough reason to learn about the distant past; otherwise he would have had little chance of identifying the items at all.
Deciding that the flashlight was the only item he would really need in order to find his way around, Brainiac 5 switched it on after a moment of examination and pushed open the door. The hallway beyond was empty, but as there was only one direction to go there was little choice but to head that way, examining the area with vague interest as he went and keeping an eye out for other people.
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