[Thread] 20th century humans called it survival of the fittest.

[brainiac4]

Who: Open
When: 10:30 AM on Dec 1st.
Where: The city.
Summery: Reports are coming in regarding a break out of spontaneous suicides all over town

Comments

[kara_of_steel]

Something was wrong. Something was really wrong. Kara had heard a scream from somewhere, but just as she'd been about to investigate, she'd heard another. And another, like they were spreading. What was going on here?!

She was hovered above the streets of the city, tense with confusion. Everywhere she looked, people seemed to be going crazy. Was this the computer's doing again? One thing after another, right?

She frowned. There wasn't anything she could do to stop crazed random acts of violence. Reasoning didn't seem to be an option. And she couldn't very well hurt them.

She took to flying again, trying to rack her brain of ideas though her thoughts kept turning to Tim, Cissie, and Thirteen. She hoped they were alright...

[kara_of_steel]

Kara did as she was asked, following Hilde to the main broadcasting station. Her eyes widened slightly at the number of computers in the room. She took a deep breath and stepped forward to a terminal beside Hilde, impressed by how quickly the girl could type.

Her brows furrowed as she stared at the screen. The data certainly made no sense to her. "Are you getting anything from all that?" She asked, frowning. Idly, she turned to glance around the room again.

Nothing seemed outwardly wrong... but Kara remembered when she'd first arrived and there had been something wrong with the computers. Brainy had asked her to use her x-ray vision on them. With that in mind, Kara slowly began to scan the room as she listened for Hilde's reply.

[citizen0soldier]

Hilde was used to this speed, she had hacked on the fly many times before this... As she cut through the system, data poured out before her eyes. Screen full after screen full.

"Huh...It's not a virus, I know that much..." she said in passing. her eyes didn't leave the screen, she was reading quickly, scrolling through property pages and windows.

"That's funny... there's a scheduled upgrade of the OS going on apparently... but the system... it's something I've never heard of." she shook her head.

[kara_of_steel]

"Hmm.. well, at least it's not a virus...?" She mused almost idly, sounding a bit distracted as she continued to scan the terminals. Seeing nothing really out of the ordinary from such a distance, she zoomed in with her telescopic vision. If it wasn't a software problem, it must be a hardware problem, right?

Her eyes widened in examination as she looked closer. There... There was something in the terminal she was examining. Something purple. That probably didn't belong, right? She scanned the one beside it. The same small purple object. And in the next one... maybe it did belong?

Confused, she turned back to scan the terminal Hilde was using. Upon locating the purple object, she took a closer look at it. Some sort of symbol...-?!

Kara gasped, her super vision cutting off as her concentration broke.

"Hilde!" She took a step back, her eyes wide in horror and disbelief. "It's... Brainy?!" No... it couldn't be. He wouldn't... would he? But he is a Brainiac...

[brainiac5ive]

"I have stabilized the victim, he should be fine until we can we can receive proper medical- Excuse me?" He said as he walked in as she said his name.

[citizen0soldier]

"Huh??" Hilde jumped a bit when Kara spoke in a raised voice. "What... what about Brainy?" she didn't have Kara's powers, she couldn't see the purple and green face staring right at her through the machine...

She went back to typing for but a second and then stopped. "Yeah... this OS upgrade is ...it's name is all kind of bizarre symbols?" Hilde looked them over some more, thinking something here was familiar but... what...

Oh!

"Brainy! There's a symbol on this screen that looks just like the one on your head!" Wait. What did that mean?? Was Brainy somehow behind this? No... he may be an attention hog but he wasn't an evildoer.

Braaiinnnyy, you got some 'splainin to dooo! XD

[kara_of_steel]

Her head whipped around when she heard the aforementioned enter the room. She hadn't meant for her expression to change, but she couldn't help glaring at him slightly as he entered the room.

"Brainiac." She frowned, her tone resembling a mother speaking to a child in trouble. "What is this about? There are little objects in each of these terminals -purple ones- with your symbol on them. You have less than five minutes to explain yourself."

Her arms folded across her chest as she stared hard at him. She wanted to believe it wasn't him. But despite his mannerisms and how he was around her, she couldn't ignore his heritage and the facts about his people. If Brainy was the cause of this... she'd have to do something about it.

[brainiac5ive]

There were what? Brainy hesitated only a moment before turning his attention to the screen. Sure enough his own symbol was there on the screen. "I can assure you that these do not belong to me, and the text on the screen is Interlac, a language from the 31st century. Someone's changed the hardware of these machines... Even if it was me I don't recall ever being here, aside from the incident regarding the Joker." He proclaimed, glancing into Kara's eyes. "Please, allow me to examine one of the devices."

[citizen0soldier]

Hilde watched this exchange quietly, wondering if these two had some kind of goings on other than being team members...

"Sure, pop a squat, smarty." she gestured to the computer next to her. "We can compare notes better this way, ready?" she actually did something a little unheard of and... test her grimace here... smiled at him.

[kara_of_steel]

She stared at Brainy as he spoke, trying almost desperately to find something in his words that would prove him innocent. But what he said did nothing to ease her suspicion.

"Brainy, how else would your symbol be on this thing? And I'm pretty sure there aren't many with your level of technology, no offense, Hilde."

She caught his eye when he met her gaze and frowned harder, only this time she was frowning at herself. She shouldn't be this lenient with him, and she shouldn't let her feelings get in the way of something so serious. But she wanted to believe him.

"Alright. Go ahead. But I'll be standing right over your shoulder, Brainy. I'm sorry, but I know you can understand why I'm suspicious right now."

[brainiac5ive]

"If we factor in every possible scenario and regards to what the ring has incorporated into the ring, it's highly possible another Coluan may have been brought here along side myself. While most of the Coluans are connected to the Hivemind, there is a tenth of a percent of the population who have chosen to take sabbaticals. That may explain a cultural usage of that symbol." The young Coluan extended his arm joint and moved it so, while he had sat down at the council, he could work within the unit itself. It was no mere moment that he had attached and began typing away at the computer.

Only mere moments after that did the keyboard spark and the innards crackle.
Ah! He pulled his arm away with minimal damage. The terminal was still running, which only meant that it was a protection against the tampering of the actual device, the only direct solution would be to destroy the system.

"Kara, use your heat vision on the six devices, now!"

[citizen0soldier]

Hilde listened, getting...most of what Brainy was saying. This 'hivemind' and 'ten percent on sabbaticals' was bizarre and for the most part, ignored. She watched as Brainy set down and got to business with the machine and then flinched, yelping when it seemed to set fire to itself.

"What the--" she looked from Brainy to Kara, wondering what her heat vision would prove for them... This was really getting more and more messed up by the second, it seemed.

Sorry for thread fail x.x;

[kara_of_steel]

Kara sighed softly, glancing at Brainy as he explained about the Hivemind and the percentage of coluans on sabbaticals. That did seem likely, and she supposed she shouldn't be surprised if there were another coluan somewhere on the ring.

"Ah!" She yelped as well in surprise when the terminal sparked, and jumped back a step, eyes wide. She glanced at the device. It was still working after that?! Then...

She didn't need to be told twice. Upon Brainy's command, she tapped into her super visions, a ray of heat blasting from her eyes as she took out the devices in the six terminals, trying to cause as little damage to the terminals as she could.

[brainiac4]

If Kara were paying attention, and hopefully she was, than she might have noticed the form stepping in behind them, clicking a switch on her arm band. She was dressed darkly, with a dark cape falling around her shoulders, masking her form. She also covered her face and hair with a mask, so if she were to be seen from this angle, it was difficult to decipher species, let alone gender.

She launched a pulse of energy from a canon she transformed from her arm, turned and pointed at the three. It was an energy based EMP burst that should, fry the systems and give the young Coluan a nice little headache.
Her work here was done.

[brainiac5ive]

Overseeing the computer, it was already malfunctioning, but it did help that his sensors were already on high alert. His shields went up immediately to compensate and protect the three of them. Unfortunately for them, the terminal that they were working on? It was powered down, the chips were fried, and they had no way to determine if the signal was down, at the moment. They may just have to destroy the digital transceiver, on the roof most likely.

While not reducing his shields, he braced himself, if he wasn't mistaken, that was... "It's a member of the Dark Circle..." Now they knew who was responsible, but knowing that didn't make it any better.

[citizen0soldier]

"And just who is that??" Hilde was in way over her head, she was well aware of that now. This figure behind them... it was like something out of a horror film. She looked to Kara and then to Brainiac5. "Alright, that's great but now what? We still have to kill that signal!"