I Am Number 4

[googledox]

Who| Closed to Brainiac 5, Lyle Norg, Punchy, Donatello, Garak, Julian, and Carlos
What| Brainiac 5's visitor turns out to be the person he wants to see the least and she has plans for her exit from Panem.
Where| The Tribute Center, then an abandoned industrial complex
When| First day in family visit week Early in the family-visit week0
Warnings/Notes| cw: verbal/physical abuse, torture, some body horror, attempted filicide, general violence, etc. etc. Brainiac 4 is not a nice lady.

In the hustle bustle of family members being shown around, it would have been easy for them to escape notice. A brown-haired human woman dressed up in clothes that looked like she perhaps came from a world like the Capitol, her hand on a young man's neck as if he was leading her along to show her around. Even though she didn't look like she was the same species, clearly she had to be a family or a friend because of the familiarity between them, right?

Brainiac 5 didn't look happy to see her, though. In fact, his expression was very blank as he led her along, strange when these were supposed to be happy circumstances.

There should have been joy there or malcontent or at least something but instead his expression was completely emotionless. She, on the other hand, looked quietly pleased, as if there was no else she'd rather see. Never once did she remove her hand from the back of his neck.

Comments

Tribute Center

[googledox]

They passed by quite a few people on their way out of the Tribute Center and seemed to be trying to slip out without a word...

But something in Brainiac 5's blank expression gave the strangest impression that all he wanted to do was scream.

Maybe it was something in the eyes.

[asklepian]

Times like this, Julian really wanted to have a tracking device on Garak. Perhaps a bell. Dax had shown up and Julian couldn't find their Cardassian friend to save his life.

He was just heading back up to the District 7 floor when he encountered Brainiac 5, and seemingly whoever his guest was.

Perhaps it was just Julian's nascent paranoia talking, but the look on his face--pupils dilated, looking a distinctly paler shade than usual, and so on--caught his attention. Something here was wrong.

Julian put on a genial smile and moved to intercept. "Brainiac 5! And who is this?"

[googledox]

They both stopped and there was something strange in how they stopped together, just a little too much in unison. The woman's hand didn't leave his neck.

His speech was very stiff and strangely monotone. "Her name is Zam Tolen. She's an old friend of mine. I was planning on showing her the sights."

He didn't have control. Every conscious bodily function was under her control - but as far as he could tell, the technology she was using didn't allow her to mind-read and she hadn't thought to control the unconscious ones and due to his twelfth-level intellect, he had the ability to control some of his bodily functions.

Sweat began pouring down his face in streams and his pupils began dilating and narrowing, over and over.

[level12jerkass]

She noticed and just as suddenly, the sweating and pupil dilation stopped.

"Brainiac and I go way back."

It hadn't occurred to her that Brainy had spoken of the loss of his universe, that it was a point of grief that he'd open up and share. It was merely an event in her eyes, a random happenstance with no emotional attachment to it. If anything, it had been a boon for her, because the chaos of a dying universe had allowed her to escape her involuntary psychiatric confinement and from there she had started her travels from universe to universe, leaving destruction in her wake.

[asklepian]

And if he hadn't had Julian's attention before--well, he certainly did now. Even the sudden cessation of that odd reaction was enough to confirm that there was something going on here. What, he wasn't exactly sure--but something.

"I see. Well, it is certainly a pleasure, Miss Tolen. Perhaps Jadzia and I could accompany you--I've not had the chance to give her the tour yet. I'm sure you'd enjoy meeting her, Brainiac--she's a fantastic conversationalist and incredibly intelligent."

[googledox]

The grip on Brainiac's neck tightened just slightly but perceptibly.

"I'm afraid that I'd prefer some time alone for Zam and I to reconnect but we'd be glad to catch up with you later."

His eyes were pleading now and there was something dulled about how he spoke of meeting them later as if something was forcing him to spit out the words but he was trying to put inflection on it that suggested it wasn't going to happen.

[level12jerkass]

"Zam" gave Julian a disarming smile.

"I'd love to meet any friends my buddy here might have made but he's right; it's been a long time since we talked. He didn't even know that I made it when our universe was lost." She spoke about it with ease, as if losing it didn't even bother her. It was a stark contrast to the regret and barely masked grief that was visible anytime Brainy or Lyle spoke of it. "After we've had a good talk, we can maybe have dinner later. It was nice to meet you, though, Mr..."

[atippleoftransparency]

They'd followed Brainy and his mother mostly using other people -- Brainy was both famous enough and unusual enough that most people remembered his passing by. That became more difficult as the number of people in the area dropped, but they eventually narrowed it down to a very abandoned-looking factory.

"She's probably disabled what security there is," Lyle said, voice clipped and to the point, not taking his eyes off the building. He didn't want to be taking this so cautiously -- he wanted to get Brainy out of there five minutes ago -- but he wasn't just going to hand these sentients to Brainiac 4 to torture Brainy with. "She wouldn't be able to use it, so there's no point in having it up. She'll probably be able to see us coming though." He glanced back at the others. "Last chance to stay behind."

[youbarium]

Carlos let out a long sigh. He wasn't comfortable with this -- who would be? Who would honestly be comfortable with going into an abandoned warehouse as bait for a sadistic alien? But, well, knowing this much about the situation, Carlos felt that ethically speaking leaving now would be irresponsible.

And besides, he'd been assured that Brainiac 4 would in all probability torture him first rather than kill him outright. It was a comforting thought, because it meant that meant the others would have time to sneak in and stop her. Someone had to.

Carlos squared his shoulders and faced the small side door they would be using to sneak into the building. If he'd been in Night Vale, a gust of wind would probably have whipped his lab coat around his knees, but even without it he managed to look appropriately theatrical.

"Let's go," he said to Punchy. Then, to the others: "...don't leave us in there too long."

[asklepian]

Julian couldn't say that he was all on board with this plan. There were too many ways it could go spectacularly off the rails, too many variables that they had no hope of controlling. And any plan that began with needing to use someone as bait was not exactly beginning in the most auspicious manner, in his opinion.

"We won't." Julian's face is solemn--they're counting on her detecting body heat instead of depending on line-of-sight or active life sign detection, so who better to hold back and go in second than a cold-blooded individual and someone who could voluntarily lower his body temperature?

It didn't mean that Julian was enthusiastic about sending Carlos and Punchy in to be potentially seriously hurt.

[polyturtle]

"A bit late to turn back now," Don replied, voice low. "Especially if she is as dangerous as you say she is. If we can stop her, we have to."

He wasn't exactly enjoying the plan, either. Besides, the woman had been able to disable Brainiac 5, and Brainiac 5 was basically smarter than...well, probably all of them combined. That why they were taking such a risk with a plan that could probably go to shell in two seconds, even and especially with willing bait. But it was a risk they were going to have to take, and he knew it.

He just had to hope she wasn't expecting anything cold-blooded to come after her.

"I'm ready when you all are."

[nunpunching]

Punchy, on the other hand, is beyond enthusiastic to be sent in to be potentially seriously hurt. In a strange sort of way, this is his element, moreso than the Games where the morality is muddled with necessity and pressure. This is plain old heroes and villains, crazy serial killers and innocent victims. This is what he's been waiting his whole life for.

He feels like he's walking on air, and the only thing weighing him down is that he'll probably have to share some glory with these other goons.

He pulls his goggles over his face, making a completely unnecessary shushing motion with his finger. "Let's do dis."

[level12jerkass]

As they infiltrated the complex, they would see that it was half dissembled, some of its systems still functioning and automated as it finished taking itself apart. It had once been used to manufacture certain metal components required for construction before production had been outsourced to one of the districts.

Once staffed by avoxes and the overseers, the only workers left were robots, much like the ones they were used to that hovering cameras around them. they were dismantling the equipment and packing it away.

The place looked skeletal, in a way, with its half-dismantled machines, their wires and metal skeletons showing, and giant vats resting on the floor in some places.

Footprints in the dust on the floor showed that people occasionally still came in but it looked like they hadn't for some time. There were, however, two sets of fresh footprints - one of them occasionally dragging - that suggested newer visitors.

As they sneaked through the complex, taking their respective positions, they quickly found who they were looking for. In one of the factory rooms there was a strange, sinister device, about six feet tall that looked like some kind of communications array. Some of the robots throughout the complex had apparently been co-opted to help build it, and parts of it seemed to be assembling themselves out of a gray goo that might have been nanites.

Standing next to it was "Zam Tolen" her hand still on Brainiac's neck. He looked deathly pale now, sweat pouring down his face, his expression the kind of expression someone might make upon realizing they'd swallowed poison.

"I should have known," Brainiaac 4 said lovingly, sounding for all the world like a mother that was joyful over being reunited with her lost child. "I should have tried to find you. If I was able escape the fires of a dying universe, I should have know that you and your little Legion would have. I suppose you have questions, though. How about I give you control of your face, lungs, and vocal cords, how does that sound?"

She pulled away, just slightly, and now they would see why she'd kept her hand at his neck the whole time she'd been with him. Coming out from her hand were strange little wires, gold, prehensile, and very fine. They had dug into the back of his neck and with her hand pulled away slightly so she could stand in front of him, the wires lengthening as she moved, they would see that the places they'd dug into his neck were oozing slightly with green blood.

She'd been controlling him like a puppet from the moment she'd gotten her hands on him. That was why he'd repeated the false name Julian had given right back to him - she had been the one making him talk and had taken Julian's word for it that his name was "James Bond."

Julian, Lyle, Donatello

[level12jerkass]

While the machine was certainly a priority, Brainaic 4 needed to be taken down before she created another means to restrain them again and so they could get their hands on the device torturing and shielding Brainiac 5, clasped at her waist.

Fortunately for them, there were plenty of things they could use around the factory against her. Metal pipes (that Donatello might find very handy to use as a bo), rivet guns, giant compactors, giant hanging hooks heavy enough to cause some damage when they were shoved at something, even the odd flamethrower/welder.

She might have them outmatched in quite a few ways due to her genius intellect and cyborg body, but all the metal tentacles in the world wouldn't save you from, say, a metal compactor.

[polyturtle]

Don didn't even hesitate before flipping up, hitting the ground running with both feet. He'd heard the conversation, yes. He'd heard that woman's words, watched the monster take pride in her son's torture. The Capitol, with old weapons, beneath the city, designed...to...

That information he would store away for later. It was irrelevant in that he had no intention of letting that woman finish the job she was clearly focused on now. He could choose to stop the machine, or stop this woman. He chose the latter. It was even possible that stopping her stopped the machine.

So he'd looked around as she monologued, got an idea of the layout, what was in the area. Something of an idea formed in his head, and he was going to use what was in front of him to his advantage, one he was free. Now, first, one very large and heavy-looking pipe, which he grabbed up and twirled as he began to run in circles. The second thing he grabbed was a large hanging hook, chained to...well, that didn't matter yet. It was chained to something, that was what mattered.

Pulling down the hook, Don first disconnected the hook from the chain, looped the chain through the inner tube of the pipe, and lastly, reattached the chain to the hook before jamming the end of the hook as neatly into the pipe as he could.

An improvised naginata-kusagrigama combo.

"...Hey," at this, he started to run again, this time towards Julian. "This is going to sound ridiculous, but can you try and 'pinch' her again? Or...look like you are?"

[asklepian]

Julian isn't far behind, and his focus is, for a brief moment, exclusively on Brainiac 5--but he can see the faint glimmer of the force field, and knows he's inaccessible at the moment.

But they have to get to him quickly. Julian knows the effect similar devices have on most physiologies, and there is a very serious danger beyond the physical.

"As a distraction, I hope, because it certainly didn't work in the least," Julian responds tersely.

[atippleoftransparency]

Donatello and Julian may have been preparing something, but Lyle was already engaging Brainiac 4. If she focused on him, then maybe whatever those two were planning would have a chance to work.

"You realize that I'm the only other Legionnaire here, right?" he asked, dodging close enough to keep her interest but trying to stay far enough out that she couldn't easily grab him. "Sprock, I'm one of his best friends. You should have done this the other way around; you're such a sprocking mess. Sloppy."

[polyturtle]

"Precisely a distraction," Don replied, before looking to see Lyle. "...Though you might have some luck in that department, someone's already doing it."

He looked up, then back at Julian.

"Then I guess...cover me unless that kid gets hurt? With luck she won't even care about me running around."

[level12jerkass]

Tentacles darted out towards Lyle.

"I'll make you bleed in front of him. Provided he isn't dead by the time I have a chance to."

That monofocused thing would work in their favor. Donatello and Julian had a lot of freedom in what they would manage to surprise her with.

Punchy and Carlos

[level12jerkass]

While the others kept Brainiac 4 distracted and tried to take her down once and for all, that left two of them to handle Brainiac 4's machine. Fortunately, she hadn't had time to set up a shield for it, but it did have defenses of its own.

The moment they moved in close, defensive metal tentacles sprang out, trying to beat and strangle them, though the device that made up their array was obvious enough that if they could just get in there and break it, they might be able to shut them down.

After that, they still had to contend with the time limit. They could see a map on the screen of the device showing the activation signal spreading through pods throughout the whole city, each one turning from red to green as it converted, and a percentage showing how many had been activated. Once they were all activated, they would trigger and start killing people. Right now it was at 32% and counting.

They had to counter hack the devices to shut them all down again and shut down Brainiac 4's machine without causing it to explode.

And disturbingly, they had to do it while Brainiac 5 twitched there, only a few feet away, in his shielded bubble, beyond their help.

[youbarium]

It wasn't that Carlos didn't care about Brainy, it really wasn't. It was more that Carlos had seen so many people writhe in agony that witnessing torture no longer broke his concentration.

It took a lot to horrify Carlos.

His attention was focused on the timer: if he understood Brainiac 4's perfectly ordinary monologue right, they had until the counter reached 100% to deactivate the device, or else old traps and devices buried beneath the Capitol's streets would destroy the city and launch a war between the Capitol and the rebellious District 13. He lunged to his feet and ran to the device -- only to be repelled by the metal tentacles. Carlos narrowly avoided being entangled but took a blow to the forearm; there would be a nasty bruise later.

"There's no time for this!" he cried, dismayed. "Punchy, do you see a way through?"

[nunpunching]

"I don't gotta see a way through."

Punchy's got a sort of preternatural calmness to him now, despite seeing suffering, despite the stakes - because of the stakes. This is his element, what he's been training for all throughout his teen years. He took a whole class called Calm Under Pressure 401, for god's sake.

"Hold tight, I'll clear a path, then you go in and take it." For his part, Punchy reaches over and grabs a hand-trolly that would normally be used to move furniture around, that probably ushered in some of the machines that Brainiac Four has reappropriated into death devices. And he picks it up and swings it at one of the tentacles like a baseball bat.

It grabs on, and after a brief tug of war steals the hand-truck, but the tentacles pause to examine what it is that they've ripped free of Punchy's hands - and he uses that as a perfect chance to kick them hard enough to break some of their wiring inside.

Granted, he's going to have hella bruises on his shins.

[youbarium]

Unorthodox, Carlos thinks, but effective.

"Here I go --!"

He dove towards the machine, ducking through the tentacles -- one of them nearly caught him by the wrist, but desperation and the situation's urgency lent Carlos the speed to pull himself free. He reached the panel that controlled the tentacles, taking a moment to analyze its structure. What would be the best way to deactivate the defenses? Carlos knew he only had seconds before Punchy couldn't distract the tentacles anymore, and frantically ran his hands over the array's surface. How did this work...?

Then, it clicked.

"It's too simple."

What, precisely, clicked was unclear. Carlos, however, had a moment of lucid, scientific comprehension, and picked up a crowbar from the floor. He brought it down on the base of the tentacle-controlling device once, twice, three times --

[nunpunching]

Rampant violence appears to be the name of the game here. Punchy's now upside down, having been hoisted by the back of his pants by one of the tentacles, and still trying to tie two of the remaining ones in a knot. At Carlos' first attack on the console, the tentacle suspending Punchy dumps him flat on his head.

It's less ceremonious than superheroing should be.

Punchy's back on his feet in an instant, and rushing to the doomsday device (the readout now says 42%). Thankfully, it still seems to have a human keyboard, which means Punchy gets to work his magic.

He looks over at Carlos with a shit-eating grin as he starts typing.

[level12jerkass]

The tentacles were down but that didn't mean the trouble was over.

They'd have to coordinate this very carefully. Punchy needed to deactivate all of the activated pods before they both destroyed the machine. But it was a very complex apparatus - one with power cells that appeared capable of being extremely explosive.

Carlos needed to figure out how to dismantle it without causing an explosion the exact moment Punchy had all of the pods deactivated.

It was a very clear "red wire, blue wire" situation but perhaps Carlos' special brand of SCIENCE! was exactly what they needed to resolve it just like Punchy's mad hacking skills were the magic touch they needed to shut down the already activated pods.