Brainiac 5 | Querl Dox (post-zero hour) (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
googledox) wrote in ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png)
legionmissions2017-05-04 08:02 pm
googledox) wrote in legionmissions2017-05-04 08:02 pm
Gods Among Us - Saving the Past [modplot]
Who| Everyone who signed up
What| "Gods Among Us"
Where| The Past
When| After the timeline falls apart
Warnings/Notes|
The shifting timeline finally settles into something...horrible. Legion World is no more. As they make it to the lab, the team finds themselves on Brainiac 3's asteroid base instead, and through the windows, something monstrous can be seen.
It was once Earth. The time travelers that altered the past sold out the planet to extradimensional entities long ago -- and all of history has suffered for it. Hence: Brainiac 3's base existing in place of Legion World. Except it doesn't belong to Brainiac 3 anymore. It was Brainiac 5's inheritance.
Brainiac 5 stares at them all from his throne. Strange cords are affixed to the apparatus on his head as if they're downloading information directly into his brain. Hanging in the room around him are different cities, shrunken and trapped in forcefield bottles. Other oddities float in containment units through his throne room. Without Earth and the influence of its heroes, galactic history has shifted. The Legion never existed, and neither did the UP. That means, without the tempering influence of the UP law, that Colu's mistreatment of the Brainiac line was far more openly brutal. This version of Brainiac 5 never became a hero.
In the windows outside, a battle is ongoing. Tentacled robots attack the strange construct that once was planet Earth. Brainiac doesn't seem to be the only one attacking the devastated planet -- other ships and constructs can be seen. Apparently, this is the last stand for many of the major powers of the altered 31st century.
Brainiac 5 looks at them like they're insects. He stands up and walks towards them, the cords attached to his head apparatus detaching one by one. A pedestal rises and a chamber opens within it, revealing a small metallic orb. He takes it in his hand and presses a button. The orb floats in the air and then suddenly expands into a bubble large enough to hold them all.
When he talks it's with a distant voice, one that sounds utterly soul-less.
"When I received the message from my alternate self, I considered simply keeping you for study."
He walks over to the window, watching the chaos unfold outside, his expression flat.
"How fortunate you are," he says in a voice utterly devoid of anything resembling emotion, "that I'm so very bored."
He waves a hand vaguely at them, over his shoulder.
"The time sphere will take you where and when you need to go. There's a data file on board that explains the alterations to the timestream." A massive ship explodes outside the window. "Do try to make the timeline at least slightly less dull."
After they pile into the time sphere, travel through the time stream is...strange. The timestream is small and massive all at once. There’s no sense of space or scale to it. It’s brilliantly colored, like layers of vibrant paints pushing through one another and dribbling past, streams of reds and greens and yellows streaking by in an instant eternity. It feels as if someone could just open the door of the time bubble and touch a solid barrier, but if they lean in they get the feeling it stretches to a near eternity.
However, if they focused in the reverse of the direction they’re moving, there’s a small dark spot in the farthest distance, where the color all cuts off. Like everything’s ended. It’s best not to focus there.
For such a massive space, it's also exceptionally crowded. They catch glimpses of multiple time travelers as they travel to the past. First, the time bubble almost rear-ends The Flash, and his then-teenage sidekick Kid Flash, as the two speedsters run on Barry's cosmic treadmill. Then it passes by another time bubble; from inside it, the hero Booster Gold and several different incarnations of the Blue Beetle stare out at them quizzically.
They even pass by a past version of the Legion itself. They're all teenagers here, and arguing with each other too fervently to notice the present-day Legionnaires whizzing by. Brainy, sans his white facial inhibitors, floats there bickering with Invisible Kid, gesturing wildly at some kind of metal platform.
Then the bubble gets them where they need to go. The files left for them by Brainiac 5 explain what was changed and what must be fixed. If they're a little barebones clinical, it can perhaps be forgiven, given that the final version of him that sent them back wasn't even a superhero.
What| "Gods Among Us"
Where| The Past
When| After the timeline falls apart
Warnings/Notes|
The shifting timeline finally settles into something...horrible. Legion World is no more. As they make it to the lab, the team finds themselves on Brainiac 3's asteroid base instead, and through the windows, something monstrous can be seen.
It was once Earth. The time travelers that altered the past sold out the planet to extradimensional entities long ago -- and all of history has suffered for it. Hence: Brainiac 3's base existing in place of Legion World. Except it doesn't belong to Brainiac 3 anymore. It was Brainiac 5's inheritance.
Brainiac 5 stares at them all from his throne. Strange cords are affixed to the apparatus on his head as if they're downloading information directly into his brain. Hanging in the room around him are different cities, shrunken and trapped in forcefield bottles. Other oddities float in containment units through his throne room. Without Earth and the influence of its heroes, galactic history has shifted. The Legion never existed, and neither did the UP. That means, without the tempering influence of the UP law, that Colu's mistreatment of the Brainiac line was far more openly brutal. This version of Brainiac 5 never became a hero.
In the windows outside, a battle is ongoing. Tentacled robots attack the strange construct that once was planet Earth. Brainiac doesn't seem to be the only one attacking the devastated planet -- other ships and constructs can be seen. Apparently, this is the last stand for many of the major powers of the altered 31st century.
Brainiac 5 looks at them like they're insects. He stands up and walks towards them, the cords attached to his head apparatus detaching one by one. A pedestal rises and a chamber opens within it, revealing a small metallic orb. He takes it in his hand and presses a button. The orb floats in the air and then suddenly expands into a bubble large enough to hold them all.
When he talks it's with a distant voice, one that sounds utterly soul-less.
"When I received the message from my alternate self, I considered simply keeping you for study."
He walks over to the window, watching the chaos unfold outside, his expression flat.
"How fortunate you are," he says in a voice utterly devoid of anything resembling emotion, "that I'm so very bored."
He waves a hand vaguely at them, over his shoulder.
"The time sphere will take you where and when you need to go. There's a data file on board that explains the alterations to the timestream." A massive ship explodes outside the window. "Do try to make the timeline at least slightly less dull."
After they pile into the time sphere, travel through the time stream is...strange. The timestream is small and massive all at once. There’s no sense of space or scale to it. It’s brilliantly colored, like layers of vibrant paints pushing through one another and dribbling past, streams of reds and greens and yellows streaking by in an instant eternity. It feels as if someone could just open the door of the time bubble and touch a solid barrier, but if they lean in they get the feeling it stretches to a near eternity.
However, if they focused in the reverse of the direction they’re moving, there’s a small dark spot in the farthest distance, where the color all cuts off. Like everything’s ended. It’s best not to focus there.
For such a massive space, it's also exceptionally crowded. They catch glimpses of multiple time travelers as they travel to the past. First, the time bubble almost rear-ends The Flash, and his then-teenage sidekick Kid Flash, as the two speedsters run on Barry's cosmic treadmill. Then it passes by another time bubble; from inside it, the hero Booster Gold and several different incarnations of the Blue Beetle stare out at them quizzically.
They even pass by a past version of the Legion itself. They're all teenagers here, and arguing with each other too fervently to notice the present-day Legionnaires whizzing by. Brainy, sans his white facial inhibitors, floats there bickering with Invisible Kid, gesturing wildly at some kind of metal platform.
Then the bubble gets them where they need to go. The files left for them by Brainiac 5 explain what was changed and what must be fixed. If they're a little barebones clinical, it can perhaps be forgiven, given that the final version of him that sent them back wasn't even a superhero.
BATMAN - Rich Rider, Gwen Stacy, Sam Alexander [cw: parental death, suicide]
The footsteps of their murderer echo off into the distance as the robber runs away, and young Bruce Wayne kneels in a pool of his parents' blood. It's a moment that is meant to harden the boy's resolve into something that takes on a life of its own.
Instead, he hears a whisper that sounds like his own voice, one that tells him to stand up, ignore the man in the alley behind him (no one's there, he's alone, all alone now), and walk out in front of traffic.
The deaths of Thomas and Martha Wayne are fixed points in history. There are some who would try to undo the creation of Batman by allowing them to live. Dowling takes the more expedient route, by trying to make a tragic day even more tragic.
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Rich knows this story already. There's a reason he joked around with Hal when Hal was still around, about how similar Night Thrasher had been. It'd all been fond joking, but the reason Dwayne had been similar wasn't funny at all -- his parents had been killed too. And it'd been enough to turn him into someone obsessed with revenge, into a black suit wearing avenger of the night. It'd taken him years to soften, to find other, better reasons to fight than vengeance.
It disgusts him that someone would make such a horrible day even worse for an innocent child, a child that was in the same place Dwayne had been.
The time sphere unloads them in the alley and they can still hear the robber's footsteps echoing away. Little Bruce, the knees of his pants soaked in blood, is already walking towards the road. Brainy's files said the timeline had been altered by Bruce throwing himself in front of a car. Something had changed, something had compelled him to do it when it hadn't happened in the original timeline.
They don't have time to figure out what's making him walk towards the road -- all that matters right now is stopping him first.
"Spider-Woman, the kid! Web him!"
Rich turns to look up the other end of the alley and when he sees the time traveler, he almost does a double-take. Thanks to that costume and the hair, for just a half a second he'd thought he suddenly run into Reed Richards, but no. The angle of the jaw is a little different, the eyes are harsher, far more unkind.
Rich doesn't bother asking questions or making any quips. This man, in a strange jumpsuit, with a clinical, just slightly smug expression on his face, doesn't belong here. They can question him after they knock him out, take away his source of time travel, and nullify his powers somehow.
He raises a hand and blasts at him.
"Nova, hit him fast and hit him hard. Questions can wait."
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He launches himself straight forward, blasting behind him to pick his speed up, aiming to tackle Evil Mr. Fantastic straight to the ground.
(It's so straightforward that it's bound to fail somehow, but Sam's not one for making things complicated.)
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Maybe after they stopped and saved him from whatever had him walking into traffic like that.
"On it."
One web line to Bruce's back and she pulled him out of the way. She then picked one of the higher buildings she could find and webbed him up against the wall nice and good.
"Just so you know, you're getting hugs and ice cream once this is all over." Back to the fight she went.
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It's not that he moved at superspeed, though. No, he just reached into Sam's brain and messed with his sense of motion, causing him to only think he'd been flying straight. Then he'd reached into the part of their brains responsible for processing visual stimuli and had simply removed himself.
That's when they hear his voice. It echoes in the alley around him, not coming from any particular direction, like they're in a movie theater with surround sound. Except it's not something they're actually hearing with their ears. He's reached into the parts of their brains that process sound now.
"Judging from your insignias, you've time traveled back to this time from over 1000 years in the future. You're the displacees, the ones pulled into this universe. The Coluan was responsible for sending you back, yes? I flagged him as a potential threat to myself and my colleagues, but I didn't think he'd retain continuity of personal identity long enough to send you back here, not with all the fluctuations in the timestream. He must have found a way to communicate with his alternate selves as each one formed. Fascinating."
He clicks his tongue.
"When all this is over, I'll have to swing by the 31st century and see if a version of him still exists -- there's bound to be a way to contain his brain in a casing and use it as a biological supercomputer."
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GREEN LANTERN - Goku, Kyle Rayner, Joey
Fortunately, all they have to do to prevent this moment from being disrupted is get between Jacob and his prey. Unfortunately, Jacob is strongest and most durable of the four evil time travelers they're facing. Even just holding him back won't be easy.
Fortunately, the desert is remote. They don't have to worry about innocent bystanders or collateral damage. All they have to do is keep a supervillain from getting from point A to point B and killing his target.
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It's not long before they spot Jacob; the yellow paint really stands out against the natural backdrop, at least from their angle. "You think that's the guy?" Sure, yellow rock monsters aren't exactly common, but he doesn't want to attack the wrong person by mistake.
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For Kyle, too, this situation feels a lot more comfy than most. Maybe it's because he's a Lantern, or because he's already weirdly familiar with how this is supposed to end up, or maybe because it's such a straightforward mission... Whatever it is, he actually feels pretty well-equipped to handle this, for once.
"He doesn't look like much, but for a Green Lantern, yellow can mean trouble. Good thing that doesn't apply to the rest of us." He says so confidently, pauses briefly, and then adds: "...right?"
No one else here has a weird, secret weakness to the color yellow... right...
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He's in no hurry. Why should he be? Hal Jordan will be there for at least another twenty minutes, learning to fly, burying Abin Sur... And if he misses the man here, there's always the few hours he'll spend unconscious after knocking himself out on a billboard a few miles from here.
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"Hey, rock guy!" ...Stealth is not a concept that Goku grasps easily. (plus, he finds it unfair if he just punches someone before they're aware that they're in a fight) Since he can't use ki blasts, he'll just go with a good old-fashioned punch to the face. He's not sure how much this guy can take, so he'll start with small boosts and work his way up - no point in exhausting himself if it turns out that there's more to this.
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ORACLE - Nightwing, Grif, Soldier 76
This visit wasn't meant to end this way, though. When he'd made his arrangements, it'd been so that he could visit Barbara and see how she was doing. But the programming that clicks on in his head comes on suddenly.
One minute Batman is there to check on his injured friend and ally, standing at the foot of her bed, stewing in guilt and self-blame. The next minute, everything's gone hazy and it's like he's watching from behind his own eyes, trapped outside of his body as something else takes over it.
Randall Dowling's power is a nasty thing. It's less telepathy and more like a contagion, like he can lay eggs in someone's else psyche; eggs that can hatch and grow and take on a life of their own. It's not Bruce Wayne that picks up a pillow and starts to suffocate a sedated Barbara Gordon in her hospital bed -- it's Dowling himself. A temporary copy, left in young Bruce's head on the day he was rescued from dying like his parents. Dowling's program takes over and the real Bruce is locked out and forced to watch.
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This particular team doesn't have the luxury of time, not that 76's strengths lie in a nuanced approach. He's much better for barreling right into the thick of things, taking the brunt of the enemy's defense simply because it's better him than anyone else.
Grif seems to function similarly, so the two of them provide the distraction of bursting through the door. They'll have to get Dowling's hands off her as quickly as possible, and 76 can only hope that they aren't already out of time. 76 all but launches himself over to the bed, looking to go for the tackle. Even if it's unsuccessful, they can hope it's enough of a diversion for Nightwing to do what he needs.
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It also means that the plan is easy to come up with. Grif and Soldier through the front door, getting Dowling's attention on them and away from Babs. Nightwing, on the other hand, peels off before they reach the room they're aiming for, slipping into another room in the wing and out the window, using the wall to make his way to the window of Babs's room.
Hopefully, the others would attack before he got there. He doesn't think he could wait long enough for them to do so if he gets there first. And he'd really rather not fight Bruce when he could just pick his JL comm off of him.
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76 goes for Bruce Wayne, and Grif rushes around the ensuing fracas to ensure Barbara has a clear airway. He'll pile in if he has to, but he has a feeling he'd just get in 76's way. "Hospital machines" are a class of object he understands a little bit better due to Legion training, so in the meantime he's on that.
Now would be a really good time, Nightwing.
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"More interference," Dowling hisses, turning away from the window to sneer at Doubletime. "Did you think this would be enough to stop me? If so, you're a fool, and you're about to be a dead one."
Nightwing might want to make his entrance fast, or else who knows what kind of mess Dowling is going to make of Grif's brain?
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SUPERMAN - Danny Fenton, Tenno, Pidge
So the farm couple didn't see the falling star. And they aren't there as the little pod opens up, revealing a baby, swaddled in red cloth. He coos and burbles happily as he looks up at the sky, clearly enjoying the sudden change in his surroundings.
Even as William Leather walks closer, hand wreathed in fire, Kal-El keeps burbling happily. The fire is pretty and he has no way of knowing its meant for him.
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"Dude, you are the worst babysitter," Danny said, a big cocky grin on his face. The witty banter just naturally flowing from his mouth, even with the high stakes they were faced with. "You're totally fired."
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She has her bayard out, but not activated. Somehow, a big green neon light felt like just a bit too big a target.
"Pun intended?" she says to Danny. She just can't help herself around a bad joke.
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That being said, he's not entirely sure who their opposition is, but he can certainly appreciate his squadmate's humor; fire puns have a special place in his heart.
"Pretty good roast," he chimes in as he hops from foot to foot, brimming with energy, "but I'm thinking someone might need to get punched now. With actual fists, not words."
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"Heh. Heh heh."
He can't help it. It starts with one little laugh, and then more follow and then he's laughing hysterically. It's not an evil cackle, he just sounds like a man that's heard a really good joke. The flame cupped in his hand goes out.
He narrows his eyes at their Legion insignias.
"You're one thousand years too early. Time travel, I'm guessing, just like me and my colleagues." He wags a fingers at them as he figures it all out. "Brainiac 5, right? That little green prick. We flagged him as a potential threat, but Randall didn't think he was worth the trip. He should've just let me blow his little baby brains out right in his crib."
A shrug.
"Maybe I still can. The day's young."
The man suddenly flares up, bright fire burning around him, so hot it burns blue. But he's not stupid enough to try to fight them. Instead, he turns and raises up a hand at the pod...
Now might be a good time for those fists.
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WONDER WOMAN - Locus, Barry Allen, Jason
Other than Dowling, Suskind is possibly the most dangerous of the Four. Invisible. Almost undetectable. Capable of projecting force fields and shaping them into weapons and implements of torture. And, to top it all off, she's capable of flipping a car with her bare hands, or tearing steel doors off their hinges. She can't be detected, not with normal senses. However, the omnicoms are far beyond normal tools, and as invisible as she is, she still stands out to ultrasound. Thermographic scans aren't as reliable, thanks to her sneaking suit, but the omnicoms can send out ultrasonic waves, detect the subtle disturbances in the air as she breathes and moves, or even detect her Kirlian aura.
However they find her, they'll have to move fast. She's on the roof of a nearby building, invisible, one that gives her a view of the library Diana will appear in. Slowly, she chambers the round on her sniper rifle, a slug cast from the shattered remnants of a thunder god's hammer. The machine spirits inside chisel prayers to the anti-gods into the bullet, to annihilate the gods-given gifts that animate Wonder Woman. Even a glancing shot will prove fatal, and without Wonder Woman's interference, Ares' plan to destroy humanity will go unchecked.
Move swiftly.
Re: WONDER WOMAN - Locus, Barry Allen, Jason
They're outside the building Wonder Woman was supposed to die in, in an alleyway. Across the street, there's a row of buildings. Skyscrapers loom in the distance, almost a mile away. And traffic's moving by pretty fast, though there's not that many people on the sidewalk just at the moment.
Still, Barry would be the best at spotting if there's someone with a gun, inside or out without, being seen. Given the time period they're in, someone with a gun would probably stick out like a sore thumb. Without pausing to see if Barry's taken his request, Jason turns to Locus. "You were military. If whoever our shooter is isn't inside, where would be the best spot for them to get into position?"
Jason hadn't grabbed any extra equipment. Only his normal mission gear, including his minicomm and the blaster they'd allowed him to carry. While it could work as a cutting torch, it was really only good for stunning people when it came to a fight.
Re: WONDER WOMAN - Locus, Barry Allen, Jason
"There's no sign of them," he says as he runs back into the alley.
"Either they're not here yet, which I doubt, or they've made themselves invisible somehow."
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He turns to regard his fellow Legionnaires. Whatever expression he's wearing under that helmet? They're not privy to.
"If they are stealthed, a reasonable assumption at this point, we'll need to draw them out, or draw their fire. A shot trajectory could be pinpointed."
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He frowns, crossing his arms. Considering how fast time is ticking by. How much time did they have before their mission failed? "There's gotta be a better way than one of us getting shot at. If it comes to that, though..." Flash could probably track a bullet. Locus could probably spot a muzzle flash or something and figure those things out. Jason's feeling a little useless here, but that'll only last until he figures out who to punch.
"Right, so. Locus. If I'm remembering the mission files right, you do invisibility, right? Can you go invisible, then zip up and watch for a muzzle flash, whether it's at us or at the window?" He turns to the Flash, scowling as he thought. "Can you, I dunno. Do science to it? What do we have that would help us find someone who might be invisible?" He wishes Billy were here. He'd have a handy solution. "I can see if I can't catch her attention."
The hard part would be doing it in a way that didn't catch anyone else's and screw up Wonder Woman's first contact. That was, if the adults let him get away with that part of the plan.
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