Ah, he was awake now. His eyes searched the room and the doctor smiled, gazing down upon the multitude of monitors that captured every angle of his new subject. He was seeing something in this setup, as the doctor had hoped, and it was causing his heart to race. Every single bit of this experiment would be recorded, everything about it scrutinized later for further research. He had everything ready, everything perfect. Now it was time to bring the boy genius up to speed.
"You know who I am, Brainiac 5, just as you know why you are here," he said, one finger pressing down on the intercom button. The cold edge to his voice suddenly melted and it seemed as if the doctor was distracted as he began to speak again. It was unclear whether he was speaking to himself or to Brainiac 5, although his questions were most certainly directed at him. "Perhaps the better question is whether or not you are the right subject for this, hm?"
Flicking a switch, he left the intercom running as he stood from his chair. He'd never been good at sitting still for long and he liked to pace as he spoke, which is what he started to do. "There are so many others I would have chosen, but in the end I was given you. Intellect you have, yes, but will you survive this? I don't know. You haven't been doing a very smashing job of that so far, you see. Taunting those you should not taunt, offending those stronger than you, getting other test subjects killed - it's enough to destroy a man's faith in you, Brainiac 5. And I had so much faith in you in the beginning."
He stopped and the ice returned to his voice as he stepped up in front of the monitors again. "You are the source of so much suffering, Coluan. Do you not regret it?"
"If you're not sure, then why am I--" he began, but as the unseen owner of the voice continued speaking, Brainiac 5 fell silent, a sinking, twisting feeling settling into his stomach. His eyes closed briefly at the reminder of Clark, a reaction that even if he'd wanted to keep hidden, he wouldn't have been able to. But even with his tormentor mentioning that, Brainiac 5 wasn't going to give him the pleasure of any other reaction.
Or at least, that was his intention until the voice asked another question and he flinched instinctively.
"That's not true!" he insisted, his voice echoing surprisingly loudly in the near-empty room.
But he felt like he was trying to tell himself that as much as the speaker. Even before he'd arrived here, the name 'Brainiac' carried overtones of pain and suffering, of ruthlessly causing pain to others, destroying worlds and homes and everything in the name of a perfect, ordered universe. He could argue that he hadn't been responsible for the actions of his ancestor, but...
Brainiac 1.0 hadn't been responsible for what had happened in the institute.
He pressed his lips into a tight, thin line and glared fixedly at the ceiling. "It's not like that."
"It's not true or it isn't like that?" the doctor asked, smiling as he watched the boy cringe at the painful memories. He had pulled up the files on the others, all those Brainiac 5 had chosen to call his friends. He knew well about the boy named Clark Kent, about Peter Parker, about all of them. He knew and he was willing to use that information to twist the boy exactly as he needed him. "You contradict yourself, Coluan."
It would be an easy task as long as the boy acted as he suspected he might. He was part of this League of Superheroes, wasn't he? He would do as a hero was supposed to and sacrifice himself for the sake of others. A foolish gamble here where the table was stacked against the player, but one that every single hero would take. It was why the would-be heroes ended up dead in an alleyway somewhere in real life.
"Then tell me, what is it like? What is it like constantly failing all those you are supposed to protect?" Best to twist the knife, to make him feel every inch of the pain and rage and futility of his future. "It's disappointing. The others would have done so much better."
"I haven't failed anyone!" Brainiac 5 snapped, but the words sounded hollow and false even to his own ears. He'd failed Clark, hadn't he? Gotten him dragged into the mess that would result in his death through his own stubbornness, his unwillingness to go along with something he didn't believe in just to appease Grell.
"Grell's a psychopath," he continued, reminding himself of this fact again as much as he was his tormentor. "It wouldn't have mattered what I did; he would have found some other way to justify his... what happened."
He shifted uncomfortably on the table, the cold metal bands biting into his skin and making even minimal movement difficult. He didn't much like where this conversation, not to mention the entire situation, was headed. He doubted whoever it was that was talking to him intended to just taunt him the entire night, so logically there had to be other plans involved. Ones he very likely wouldn't enjoy in the least, from what he'd heard of the experimentation that had happened to others before him.
Experimentation he'd done little to look into further or try and stop. The Legion, Superman, would have been ashamed.
No, that wasn't important now. Yes, he'd made a mistake there, he hadn't done as well as he could, as he should have been, but it was no help to punish himself over it now. He had to think, because he had nothing else to get him out of this situation now.
The experiments were what he wanted to avoid, the taunting was painful in a different way, but infinitely preferable to anything physical right now. So his best choice for the moment was to try and keep the man talking.
"You don't know what happened," he said aloud, his eyes tracing what could be seen of the room for any clues of who he might be dealing with or what they had in store for him. "You weren't there; you're basing this on conjecture and second-hand accounts at best. Why should I listen to you?"
The doctor couldn't help himself. He laughed. When Brainiac 5 futilely tried to refute his points and pass the blame on another. Yes, the man who had killed his friend was a psychopath, a crazy man who believed himself to be a woman, who tried to continue his God given mission even here. But there was one little detail the Coluan neglected to mention. Even with all his accusations and planning, it was all for naught. The doctor knew and he let Brainiac 5 know he knew by his laughter. It started low and mocking and eventually grew until the man was almost hysterical.
"Haven't--" He tried to breathe and almost couldn't, doubling over as he grabbed his stomach. "You haven't failed anyone?!"
The sound echoed off the walls in the empty room.
"How like you, Brainiac 5! How very like you!" It took a moment for him to regain his senses and even then he was chuckling every few words. "Brush the responsibility onto some crazy who you just happened to goad into action and say you have no responsibility? Haha! Some hero you are! What a joke!"
His words eventually died into silence and the doctor swallowed his amusement for the sake of the experiment, leaning forward in his chair to peer into the monitors - into Brainiac 5's face. His eyes were tracing the walls for clues that didn't exist. "You underestimate us, Coluan. Don't do it again or you'll live an eternal hell where you never save him. You liked those holodeck projections didn't you? How about one that never ends? One that shows you over and over just how much you failed?"
But that wasn't the point of this operation was it? No, it wasn't, but it was so much fun. The doctor had almost forgotten himself. "Of all the incarnations of you, I got stuck with the one that failed, hm? It's so unfortunate for me and for poor Clark. If it had been any of the other Brainiac 5's perhaps he would have survived. But you are so lucky. So lucky. We have a deal for you, Brainy. Would you like to hear it? Of course, if you don't take the deal, I can just push it off on another of your friends here. Perhaps the one fighting to find you now, hm? He's quite promising himself, you know."
He flinched at the laughter, and immediately cursed himself for showing a sign that the doctor's words were bothering him. He couldn't afford to let the man see that it upset him, not now.
"Alright, you've made your point," he said shortly. It seemed as though his tormentor disagreed, however, as he started on about other Brainiac 5s... Of course. The multiverse theory. That's what he was referring to. Brainiac 5 was, of course, familiar with it. He'd even been toying with some equations that might allow for travel between different universes, but it was interesting that this supposed doctor knew something about it. Maybe it was proof that he had some idea of how everyone was brought here from their respective universes, and if he was carefully, then Brainiac 5 could use this chance to try and find out more--
His thoughts came to an abrupt halt and slipped away as the unseen man continued speaking, his words conjuring a terrifyingly realistic image of Peter struggling to get closer to where he was. He remembered all too well his own panic when his roommate was taken, how he'd dashed around the institute to try and find him again. Peter would be doing the same, most likely, trying to reach him and find a way to spare him of whatever it was they had in mind. And if the doctor was offering to let that happen...
"No!" he surprised himself with how quickly his answer came, snapped out to the air with a fair amount of force. "No," he repeated, his voice steadier. "I won't let someone else take my place. I'm not that kind of person."
He'd never let himself be like that, if he had any say in the matter. Instead Brainiac 5 frowned at the ceiling. "What's this deal you're talking about?"
Vehemence suited him well. That determination was what the Coluan needed if he was going to survive and, despite all his mockery, the doctor did want the boy to survive. He had such potential, such useful potential that it would be a shame to see him fall to someone so simple as one deranged loony out of crowd of lunatics he'd found himself in. One more wrong move and it could be his throat being slit in the dark.
A slow smile spread across the doctor's face as he watched Brainy come to his decision, facing his fate, accepting that there was no choice for him but to comply. "Good..." he said quietly, leaning forward in his chair. "Very good, Brainy."
His fingers flew across the control panel and his monitors pulled up the details of the surgery to be done. The smile spread further as he watched the ingenuity of his work. It had taken so long to recreate it and it had so many snags along the way. Perhaps that was why the boy had been spared up until tonight. Perhaps.
"Of all your incarnations, you are the least adapted to your situation. Without your pretty wires and enhancements, your skin of metal and hydraulic joints, you're weak. Beyond weak, Brainy. It's pathetic really. So disappointing." Oh, but he shouldn't rub it in, should he? "So disappointing."
No, but he would anyway.
"So your deal: we make you better. We bring you as close as possible to the level of your others so you don't just die spectacularly here. Because, well, as amusing as that would be for me, it would be such an inconvenience after all the trouble we've gone through. It's you or your friends. We upgrade one or the other. What say you?"
"Don't call me that." The bite in his tone was stronger than he'd expected, but the Coluan wasn't about to back down now. He could see what this madman was trying, to wear him down, make him doubt himself, and he wasn't going to allow it.
Even though the words struck a painful nerve, because hadn't he been thinking them himself not that long ago? Hadn't he regretted so many times that he didn't have the upgrades and abilities he'd spent the majority of his life with? The things that made everything so much easier...
"My name is Brainiac 5," he made himself say. "Only my friends can call me Brainy, and considering the circumstances of this meeting, I don't think you're one of them, do you?"
It was something of a futile attempt to exert some control over the situation, he knew. Futile and pointless as the offer the unseen man was making him. Brainiac 5 knew he could ask what this 'upgrade' consisted of, what would be done to him, but it wouldn't matter if the man answered or not. The choice was, for once, exceedingly simple. He could allow them to do what they liked to him, or they would do what they liked to someone he cared about and who most likely knew little of this exchange at all.
It wasn't even a choice at all, they both knew that.
"I already told you," he said sharply. "I won't allow someone else to take any... 'upgrade' or punishment intended for me. I agree to your deal."
"Your name is whatever I feel like calling you at the moment, Coluan. It would serve you to be on my good side seeing how I am in charge of whether or live or die during this little experiment." The doctor liked threats. He especially liked them when they weren't idle ones. He could kill Brainy during the experiment. Say a hand slipped, the formula wasn't right, something mechanical had gone wrong and unfortunately ripped him to pieces - it was easy, so very easy. But it would mean he would have to search for a new subject. A matter of a few weeks, perhaps? Or days, depending on how far the rest of their research had gotten.
"Remember that. You are not in control here," he hissed through the microphone before cutting it off.
The boy had agreed and that was what mattered. Now it was time to start the process; the real process. The doctor suddenly killed the lights and left his chair, washing up as he prepared to join his guinea pig down below. While they had all the right sort of tools that he could do this from afar, he preferred to be hands-on. The rest was rubbish, dulled the feel of the patient's body, the feeling of their pain.
As he entered the room with no more than a whisper, a light flicked on overhead and flooded Brainiac 5's table in a circle of fluorescence. The doctor walked up, dressed in his scrubs and leaned over the table, his face obscured by a mask and a pair of tinted safety glasses. "I suppose, if we were friends, I would have given you an anesthetic, but seeing how we're not, let's begin, shall we?"
Picking up a scalpel from the nearby table, the doctor grabbed Brainy's right arm and pressed the blade to his wrist. "Don't move now. It would be terrible if I were to nick your veins and arteries here."
Brainiac 5 seethed silently at that, unable to think of anything to say as there was the sound of a microphone cutting out and the lights suddenly shut off. The doctor was right again, they both knew there was little he could do here, and unfortunately he was probably also correct in that Brainiac 5 would have to be careful about what he said, lest there be some sort of 'accident' here.
As if the situation wasn't bad enough already.
He was left in the darkness for what felt like far too long, though he knew logically it could have been more than a few minutes. No doubt his unseen tormentor was preparing whatever this deal was, and he imagined he wouldn't like the result of it one bit. From what he'd seen and been told, it was obviously some sort of physical upgrade, but he wasn't sure what kind, nor how they were intending to achieve it.
He had a sneaking suspicion it wasn't going to be pleasant though. He cast his mind back to what he could remember of Earth medical procedures, but a vast majority of it fell under 'archaic and outdated, best only in extreme emergencies', which wasn't very reassuring.
A light snapped on directly above him, flooding the area with harsh, white light and the Coluan winced, momentarily blinded. When he was able to blink the spots clear from his vision, he found himself looking up into a masked face, the features obscured so much that it could have been almost anyone and he wouldn't have been able to tell the difference. He opened his mouth to say something, demand an idea of what he was in for here, but he froze up before he could form the words.
Surgery, of the kind medicine had abandoned centuries ago, without anything to dull the pain. A questionably qualified doctor messing about with his body. "Wait!"
His blood ran cold as the blade of a scalpel (and he knew it was a scalpel even without looking, he couldn't forget what having one pressed against his skin felt like, the exact size and shape perfectly preserved in his memory) touched his wrist and his mind twisted around the horror of what the doctor was about to do, the anticipation making him tense and his body tremble faintly before the surgery had even begun.
The pressure on the blade lessened as the boy cried out for him to stop. Oh, the fear ran deep in him, almost palpable in the way he trembled. If only the doctor could see in his head, cut it open and play the memories he was seeing, he could understand better the way he was feeling. But he couldn't and so he didn't. He knew enough to pull the blade back, however, and he leaned in close to Brainiac 5's ear. His smile was obvious in his voice?
"Reconsidered our attitude, now have we?"
He set the scalpel down on the tray and picked up several small containers - each holding a computer chip or some other sort of machinery, kept just out of complete view, enough that Brainy could see if he strained to look out the corner of his eye. "Are you curious? What we're going to do to you? Or would you rather not know?"
Picking up a bottle of iodine and a few cotton swabs, the doctor began cleaning the boy's wrists and ankles. He opened his shirt and dabbed a patch in the middle of his chest. "I could describe the process for you, but I don't know which is worse - knowing the pain you'll be in, or not knowing the horror in store for you. Another choice, Brainy. Another chance."
Movement caught the corner of his eye, and Brainiac 5 had the fight not to go out of his way to see what it was that the doctor was doing. See if it held some hint of what was to come. He blinked and refocused his gaze on the masked face above him as the man spoke. Did he want to know what was going to happen, what the doctor had in mind for him?
"Yes," he answered at once. "Even if it's something bad-" which he didn't doubt that it would be "-then I want to know what it is. I'd rather face what was coming than pretend that ignorance will somehow lessen the pain."
Whatever the doctor was dabbing on him felt strange on his skin, and he didn't doubt that the procedure would feel a lot worse before the night was out, but he'd rather know what he had to face than not. It was what Superman would have done, after all. What the Doctor and Peter would choose, he was certain.
"I'd like to know what you're planning to do to me."
"What a smart boy you are, Brainy." Smart and now the doctor was able to see the effects of anticipation on the brain and body. How much worse would the pain be if he knew exactly what was coming? So many times now he'd seen what happened to a man who had no idea and no way of bracing him. Now he had the chance to see a mere boy, a boy who relied on logic, try to deal with the things that would come to pass.
"We're going to give you what you wanted most, Brainy. A technological upgrade." The doctor moved away, bent down and with a quiet rush of air, released the locks holding his newest experiment captive. The capsule was heavy and he had to use both hands to remove it from the cold storage. He also had to be careful as he lifted it up and showed it to Brainy - a single silver container with four glass panels to show the slightly iridescent milky-blue fluid inside.
"Do you see this? It's beautiful isn't it? A real work of art considering the times. We're going to inject this liquid into your brain, eyes and every other place we can think of. It's going to give you just what you need, but what that is - you'll have to find out yourself. I can't tell you every secret now can I? Isn't it more fun when there's a mystery to unlock?" With a grin that Brainy couldn't see, but might have heard, he put the capsule down and picked up one of the smaller clear containers. He brought it back and dangled it over Brainy's head making the chip inside clink against the sides. "And do you see these? We're going to stick these in your forehead and wrists so you can control the lovely gift we give you. It's going to hurt. Tremendously. Are you ready?"
Even strapped down to the operating table and knowing that the rest of the night would only get far worse from there, Brainiac 5 couldn't help but eye the canister the doctor held with open interest.
"It's..." he frowned. "Is it some sort of liquid technology?"
It was about the only thing he could think of that would match what the doctor was talking about, but from there it really could have been anything. He was inclined to think of the nanotechnology that had made up a good portion of his Coluan systems before he'd been brought here, but that looked different from the strange liquid in the canister and, considering the access to different universes the institute had already demonstrated, it could have been from anywhere or anywhen.
He dragged his eyes away to stare defiantly up at the doctor as he spoke of what he was going to do with the substance without sharing what the end result would theoretically be.
"I'm sure I'll manage to figure it out on my own," he said, realising he was pushing matters with not angering his captor but also unwilling to simply lie there silently, a machine to be upgraded with no say in the matter.
His eyes narrowed at the next container to be held over him, wondering how necessary they really were to this whole procedure... and with a sudden chill he realised that there was no way for him to stop the doctor from continuing (not unless he was willing to sacrifice someone else, in which case he wouldn't be worth saving at all) and that, with no means of lessening the pain, it was going to hurt quite a lot more than any of the upgrades he'd given himself over his life so far.
He swallowed hard, his mouth suddenly dry. "Does it matter what I say in answer to that, really? I'm not going to change my mind."
"A form of one, yes." The doctor smiled and tapped Brainy on the forehead. "Smart one, you are."
And he would certainly manage. For better or for worse, he would eventually discover the true meaning of his upgrade. Now or later, he would realize the dangers he'd put his friends in while valiantly and vainly trying to protect them. One day, but not now.
"Smart indeed," the doctor drawled, patting the boy on the cheek. Whether the patient was ready or not, the doctor certainly was. The areas were clean and it only took a matter of moments to prep the series of syringes needed. These he laid out one by one, side by side along with the scalpels and the containers. It looked so pretty. So organized. So...beautiful. He took a moment to appreciate the scene before him and then picked up the first in the series. Quietly, he spoke again, his voice distracted as he gazed into the liquid inside the syringe tube. "It doesn't really matter, no...."
Turning back to Brainy, he touched the boy's cheek again and smiled at him behind the mask. His grip suddenly moved to his eye, forcing the eyelids open as the doctor turned the syringe downward. "Enjoy this, Brainy. It's a once in a lifetime experience."
And without further ado, he pushed the tip of the needle into the inner canthus of his left eye.
It took more than he expected not to flinch away from the doctor's touch. Brainiac 5 had never been particularly partial to physical contact of any sort from strangers and was even less so with his current situation. It had taken him long enough to get used to it with the Legion, and those were people he liked being around. The doctor's condescending pats were a different matter entirely.
But still, he managed to keep himself relatively under control and simply staring up at the masked face... until the man suddenly pulled one eye open.
His heart thudded in his chest painfully and Brainiac 5 gasped as the tip of the syringe descended, a noise that turned into a yell as it pushed into the canthus of the eye itself. But despite the shock, he had to force himself not to move, the horror of what would happen if he jerked away or fought outweighing what was actually happening. At least for now.
"You know who I am, Brainiac 5, just as you know why you are here," he said, one finger pressing down on the intercom button. The cold edge to his voice suddenly melted and it seemed as if the doctor was distracted as he began to speak again. It was unclear whether he was speaking to himself or to Brainiac 5, although his questions were most certainly directed at him. "Perhaps the better question is whether or not you are the right subject for this, hm?"
Flicking a switch, he left the intercom running as he stood from his chair. He'd never been good at sitting still for long and he liked to pace as he spoke, which is what he started to do. "There are so many others I would have chosen, but in the end I was given you. Intellect you have, yes, but will you survive this? I don't know. You haven't been doing a very smashing job of that so far, you see. Taunting those you should not taunt, offending those stronger than you, getting other test subjects killed - it's enough to destroy a man's faith in you, Brainiac 5. And I had so much faith in you in the beginning."
He stopped and the ice returned to his voice as he stepped up in front of the monitors again. "You are the source of so much suffering, Coluan. Do you not regret it?"
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Or at least, that was his intention until the voice asked another question and he flinched instinctively.
"That's not true!" he insisted, his voice echoing surprisingly loudly in the near-empty room.
But he felt like he was trying to tell himself that as much as the speaker. Even before he'd arrived here, the name 'Brainiac' carried overtones of pain and suffering, of ruthlessly causing pain to others, destroying worlds and homes and everything in the name of a perfect, ordered universe. He could argue that he hadn't been responsible for the actions of his ancestor, but...
Brainiac 1.0 hadn't been responsible for what had happened in the institute.
He pressed his lips into a tight, thin line and glared fixedly at the ceiling. "It's not like that."
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It would be an easy task as long as the boy acted as he suspected he might. He was part of this League of Superheroes, wasn't he? He would do as a hero was supposed to and sacrifice himself for the sake of others. A foolish gamble here where the table was stacked against the player, but one that every single hero would take. It was why the would-be heroes ended up dead in an alleyway somewhere in real life.
"Then tell me, what is it like? What is it like constantly failing all those you are supposed to protect?" Best to twist the knife, to make him feel every inch of the pain and rage and futility of his future. "It's disappointing. The others would have done so much better."
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"Grell's a psychopath," he continued, reminding himself of this fact again as much as he was his tormentor. "It wouldn't have mattered what I did; he would have found some other way to justify his... what happened."
He shifted uncomfortably on the table, the cold metal bands biting into his skin and making even minimal movement difficult. He didn't much like where this conversation, not to mention the entire situation, was headed. He doubted whoever it was that was talking to him intended to just taunt him the entire night, so logically there had to be other plans involved. Ones he very likely wouldn't enjoy in the least, from what he'd heard of the experimentation that had happened to others before him.
Experimentation he'd done little to look into further or try and stop. The Legion, Superman, would have been ashamed.
No, that wasn't important now. Yes, he'd made a mistake there, he hadn't done as well as he could, as he should have been, but it was no help to punish himself over it now. He had to think, because he had nothing else to get him out of this situation now.
The experiments were what he wanted to avoid, the taunting was painful in a different way, but infinitely preferable to anything physical right now. So his best choice for the moment was to try and keep the man talking.
"You don't know what happened," he said aloud, his eyes tracing what could be seen of the room for any clues of who he might be dealing with or what they had in store for him. "You weren't there; you're basing this on conjecture and second-hand accounts at best. Why should I listen to you?"
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"Haven't--" He tried to breathe and almost couldn't, doubling over as he grabbed his stomach. "You haven't failed anyone?!"
The sound echoed off the walls in the empty room.
"How like you, Brainiac 5! How very like you!" It took a moment for him to regain his senses and even then he was chuckling every few words. "Brush the responsibility onto some crazy who you just happened to goad into action and say you have no responsibility? Haha! Some hero you are! What a joke!"
His words eventually died into silence and the doctor swallowed his amusement for the sake of the experiment, leaning forward in his chair to peer into the monitors - into Brainiac 5's face. His eyes were tracing the walls for clues that didn't exist. "You underestimate us, Coluan. Don't do it again or you'll live an eternal hell where you never save him. You liked those holodeck projections didn't you? How about one that never ends? One that shows you over and over just how much you failed?"
But that wasn't the point of this operation was it? No, it wasn't, but it was so much fun. The doctor had almost forgotten himself. "Of all the incarnations of you, I got stuck with the one that failed, hm? It's so unfortunate for me and for poor Clark. If it had been any of the other Brainiac 5's perhaps he would have survived. But you are so lucky. So lucky. We have a deal for you, Brainy. Would you like to hear it? Of course, if you don't take the deal, I can just push it off on another of your friends here. Perhaps the one fighting to find you now, hm? He's quite promising himself, you know."
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"Alright, you've made your point," he said shortly. It seemed as though his tormentor disagreed, however, as he started on about other Brainiac 5s... Of course. The multiverse theory. That's what he was referring to. Brainiac 5 was, of course, familiar with it. He'd even been toying with some equations that might allow for travel between different universes, but it was interesting that this supposed doctor knew something about it. Maybe it was proof that he had some idea of how everyone was brought here from their respective universes, and if he was carefully, then Brainiac 5 could use this chance to try and find out more--
His thoughts came to an abrupt halt and slipped away as the unseen man continued speaking, his words conjuring a terrifyingly realistic image of Peter struggling to get closer to where he was. He remembered all too well his own panic when his roommate was taken, how he'd dashed around the institute to try and find him again. Peter would be doing the same, most likely, trying to reach him and find a way to spare him of whatever it was they had in mind. And if the doctor was offering to let that happen...
"No!" he surprised himself with how quickly his answer came, snapped out to the air with a fair amount of force. "No," he repeated, his voice steadier. "I won't let someone else take my place. I'm not that kind of person."
He'd never let himself be like that, if he had any say in the matter. Instead Brainiac 5 frowned at the ceiling. "What's this deal you're talking about?"
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A slow smile spread across the doctor's face as he watched Brainy come to his decision, facing his fate, accepting that there was no choice for him but to comply. "Good..." he said quietly, leaning forward in his chair. "Very good, Brainy."
His fingers flew across the control panel and his monitors pulled up the details of the surgery to be done. The smile spread further as he watched the ingenuity of his work. It had taken so long to recreate it and it had so many snags along the way. Perhaps that was why the boy had been spared up until tonight. Perhaps.
"Of all your incarnations, you are the least adapted to your situation. Without your pretty wires and enhancements, your skin of metal and hydraulic joints, you're weak. Beyond weak, Brainy. It's pathetic really. So disappointing." Oh, but he shouldn't rub it in, should he? "So disappointing."
No, but he would anyway.
"So your deal: we make you better. We bring you as close as possible to the level of your others so you don't just die spectacularly here. Because, well, as amusing as that would be for me, it would be such an inconvenience after all the trouble we've gone through. It's you or your friends. We upgrade one or the other. What say you?"
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Even though the words struck a painful nerve, because hadn't he been thinking them himself not that long ago? Hadn't he regretted so many times that he didn't have the upgrades and abilities he'd spent the majority of his life with? The things that made everything so much easier...
"My name is Brainiac 5," he made himself say. "Only my friends can call me Brainy, and considering the circumstances of this meeting, I don't think you're one of them, do you?"
It was something of a futile attempt to exert some control over the situation, he knew. Futile and pointless as the offer the unseen man was making him. Brainiac 5 knew he could ask what this 'upgrade' consisted of, what would be done to him, but it wouldn't matter if the man answered or not. The choice was, for once, exceedingly simple. He could allow them to do what they liked to him, or they would do what they liked to someone he cared about and who most likely knew little of this exchange at all.
It wasn't even a choice at all, they both knew that.
"I already told you," he said sharply. "I won't allow someone else to take any... 'upgrade' or punishment intended for me. I agree to your deal."
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"Remember that. You are not in control here," he hissed through the microphone before cutting it off.
The boy had agreed and that was what mattered. Now it was time to start the process; the real process. The doctor suddenly killed the lights and left his chair, washing up as he prepared to join his guinea pig down below. While they had all the right sort of tools that he could do this from afar, he preferred to be hands-on. The rest was rubbish, dulled the feel of the patient's body, the feeling of their pain.
As he entered the room with no more than a whisper, a light flicked on overhead and flooded Brainiac 5's table in a circle of fluorescence. The doctor walked up, dressed in his scrubs and leaned over the table, his face obscured by a mask and a pair of tinted safety glasses. "I suppose, if we were friends, I would have given you an anesthetic, but seeing how we're not, let's begin, shall we?"
Picking up a scalpel from the nearby table, the doctor grabbed Brainy's right arm and pressed the blade to his wrist. "Don't move now. It would be terrible if I were to nick your veins and arteries here."
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As if the situation wasn't bad enough already.
He was left in the darkness for what felt like far too long, though he knew logically it could have been more than a few minutes. No doubt his unseen tormentor was preparing whatever this deal was, and he imagined he wouldn't like the result of it one bit. From what he'd seen and been told, it was obviously some sort of physical upgrade, but he wasn't sure what kind, nor how they were intending to achieve it.
He had a sneaking suspicion it wasn't going to be pleasant though. He cast his mind back to what he could remember of Earth medical procedures, but a vast majority of it fell under 'archaic and outdated, best only in extreme emergencies', which wasn't very reassuring.
A light snapped on directly above him, flooding the area with harsh, white light and the Coluan winced, momentarily blinded. When he was able to blink the spots clear from his vision, he found himself looking up into a masked face, the features obscured so much that it could have been almost anyone and he wouldn't have been able to tell the difference. He opened his mouth to say something, demand an idea of what he was in for here, but he froze up before he could form the words.
Surgery, of the kind medicine had abandoned centuries ago, without anything to dull the pain. A questionably qualified doctor messing about with his body. "Wait!"
His blood ran cold as the blade of a scalpel (and he knew it was a scalpel even without looking, he couldn't forget what having one pressed against his skin felt like, the exact size and shape perfectly preserved in his memory) touched his wrist and his mind twisted around the horror of what the doctor was about to do, the anticipation making him tense and his body tremble faintly before the surgery had even begun.
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"Reconsidered our attitude, now have we?"
He set the scalpel down on the tray and picked up several small containers - each holding a computer chip or some other sort of machinery, kept just out of complete view, enough that Brainy could see if he strained to look out the corner of his eye. "Are you curious? What we're going to do to you? Or would you rather not know?"
Picking up a bottle of iodine and a few cotton swabs, the doctor began cleaning the boy's wrists and ankles. He opened his shirt and dabbed a patch in the middle of his chest. "I could describe the process for you, but I don't know which is worse - knowing the pain you'll be in, or not knowing the horror in store for you. Another choice, Brainy. Another chance."
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"Yes," he answered at once. "Even if it's something bad-" which he didn't doubt that it would be "-then I want to know what it is. I'd rather face what was coming than pretend that ignorance will somehow lessen the pain."
Whatever the doctor was dabbing on him felt strange on his skin, and he didn't doubt that the procedure would feel a lot worse before the night was out, but he'd rather know what he had to face than not. It was what Superman would have done, after all. What the Doctor and Peter would choose, he was certain.
"I'd like to know what you're planning to do to me."
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"We're going to give you what you wanted most, Brainy. A technological upgrade." The doctor moved away, bent down and with a quiet rush of air, released the locks holding his newest experiment captive. The capsule was heavy and he had to use both hands to remove it from the cold storage. He also had to be careful as he lifted it up and showed it to Brainy - a single silver container with four glass panels to show the slightly iridescent milky-blue fluid inside.
"Do you see this? It's beautiful isn't it? A real work of art considering the times. We're going to inject this liquid into your brain, eyes and every other place we can think of. It's going to give you just what you need, but what that is - you'll have to find out yourself. I can't tell you every secret now can I? Isn't it more fun when there's a mystery to unlock?" With a grin that Brainy couldn't see, but might have heard, he put the capsule down and picked up one of the smaller clear containers. He brought it back and dangled it over Brainy's head making the chip inside clink against the sides. "And do you see these? We're going to stick these in your forehead and wrists so you can control the lovely gift we give you. It's going to hurt. Tremendously. Are you ready?"
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"It's..." he frowned. "Is it some sort of liquid technology?"
It was about the only thing he could think of that would match what the doctor was talking about, but from there it really could have been anything. He was inclined to think of the nanotechnology that had made up a good portion of his Coluan systems before he'd been brought here, but that looked different from the strange liquid in the canister and, considering the access to different universes the institute had already demonstrated, it could have been from anywhere or anywhen.
He dragged his eyes away to stare defiantly up at the doctor as he spoke of what he was going to do with the substance without sharing what the end result would theoretically be.
"I'm sure I'll manage to figure it out on my own," he said, realising he was pushing matters with not angering his captor but also unwilling to simply lie there silently, a machine to be upgraded with no say in the matter.
His eyes narrowed at the next container to be held over him, wondering how necessary they really were to this whole procedure... and with a sudden chill he realised that there was no way for him to stop the doctor from continuing (not unless he was willing to sacrifice someone else, in which case he wouldn't be worth saving at all) and that, with no means of lessening the pain, it was going to hurt quite a lot more than any of the upgrades he'd given himself over his life so far.
He swallowed hard, his mouth suddenly dry. "Does it matter what I say in answer to that, really? I'm not going to change my mind."
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And he would certainly manage. For better or for worse, he would eventually discover the true meaning of his upgrade. Now or later, he would realize the dangers he'd put his friends in while valiantly and vainly trying to protect them. One day, but not now.
"Smart indeed," the doctor drawled, patting the boy on the cheek. Whether the patient was ready or not, the doctor certainly was. The areas were clean and it only took a matter of moments to prep the series of syringes needed. These he laid out one by one, side by side along with the scalpels and the containers. It looked so pretty. So organized. So...beautiful. He took a moment to appreciate the scene before him and then picked up the first in the series. Quietly, he spoke again, his voice distracted as he gazed into the liquid inside the syringe tube. "It doesn't really matter, no...."
Turning back to Brainy, he touched the boy's cheek again and smiled at him behind the mask. His grip suddenly moved to his eye, forcing the eyelids open as the doctor turned the syringe downward. "Enjoy this, Brainy. It's a once in a lifetime experience."
And without further ado, he pushed the tip of the needle into the inner canthus of his left eye.
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But still, he managed to keep himself relatively under control and simply staring up at the masked face... until the man suddenly pulled one eye open.
His heart thudded in his chest painfully and Brainiac 5 gasped as the tip of the syringe descended, a noise that turned into a yell as it pushed into the canthus of the eye itself. But despite the shock, he had to force himself not to move, the horror of what would happen if he jerked away or fought outweighing what was actually happening. At least for now.
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