thearena | [Closed] Licensed to Lurk

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[Closed] Licensed to Lurk

Who| Lyle, Brainiac 5
What| A newbie arrives in the Arena and finds a friend!
Where| Basement
When| Week 2
Warnings/Notes| Swearing

Lyle made a break for cover the very moment he could leap over the lip of the tube they've sent him up, zig-zagging across the concrete floor to make himself harder for anyone in here to hit. He took cover behind one of the concrete pillars and took stock of the situation.

1) He'd been abducted.

2) He'd been informed that he was here to participate in some sort of gladiatorial combat.

3) His abductors had taken his transuit, uniform, belt, flight ring (which they'd replaced with a fake), and even his headband.

4) His abductors did not like it when he objected to points 1, 2, and 3.

5) His abductors had dressed him black silk pajamas which, while comfortable and permitted excellent range of motion, were still pajamas.

6) His invisibility didn't work any more -- he'd tested it on his way up the tube.

7) It already smelled like old blood in here.

8) No one appeared to be trying to kill him yet.

Conclusion: This was going to suck like the vacuum of space.

He eased himself upward slightly, peering around for signs of movement, of a threat, but didn't see any yet. There were other pillars that someone could be hiding behind, just as he was, and some odd metal and glass sculpt-- oh! Those were cars! Old-timey cars! Okay, late twentieth or early twenty-first century, or similar technology levels. Good to know -- and, of course, the bloody sacrificial pit. As soon as he was sure he wasn't going to get shot in the head if he ventured out, he'd go see if anyone was still alive over there. There was a set of elevator doors on the wall he could see from this angle, with a word written in red Roman letters above it. Probably an "exit" sign, just in a language Lyle didn't read.

Eventually, after series of stops and zig-zagging starts, Lyle made it over to one of the cars near the edge of the lot. It seemed like as good a place as any to start picking up tools -- material to cover the bottoms of his feet maybe, or something to divert projectiles from his head, or a blunt object with which to smack someone who got too close with unapproved intentions.

Lyle put himself between the wall and the car and went to work.

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He'd chosen the garage since it was the place where the carnage had all started, which meant it was a place most would want to avoid after it had been picked clean, and because there was really nothing down here. He'd chosen the vent because even though there was hardly anything down here, staying out in the open was idiotic.

He'd expected to maybe find the odd person down here scavenging from the primitive fossil fuel vehicles but he certainly hadn't expected it to be this person of all people.

Brainy was a skeptic when it came to the possibility of deities that weren't simply very powerful extradimensional beings, he really was. However, for Lyle to be here with him, of all possible Legionnaires, that did certainly hint at the possibility of there being be some god of vindictive irony - one that had a grudge against the Capitol.

As Lyle scavenged away, Brainy opened the grate silently, dangled upside down just as silently and...

"Greetings, Norg."

...Tested his startle reflex. Because he was a jerk like that.

Edited 2014-01-29 05:04 (UTC)

And Brainy nearly got his first kill of the Arena, because Lyle damn near had a heart attack. Only years of training kept him from swearing at the top of his lungs in surprise.

"Motherfucker!" he gasped in a strangled voice, whirling around but managing to restrain himself from reflexively punching the other sentient in the face. He didn't, however, resist the urge to thump him on the chest. "You one-humped clownshit, I don't know whether to hug you or drag out out of that vent by your nose!"

Okay, two Legionnaires present. That evens the odds a bit.

"I'd advise against either course of action until I explain what's going on. The latter might break my neck, and as for the former...just don't."

That means you should hug him, Lyle. Right now. Hug the green snot out of his green self.

Edited 2014-01-29 05:49 (UTC)

Lyle hadn't hugged Brainy after the Coluan had returned from another galaxy while Lyle'd thought he'd been dead for a year. But that time, he'd had advanced warning of Brainy's state of not-being-dead, and this time he was feeling a little vindictive after that near heart-attack.

Enjoy having your nose pressed up against Lyle's chest, Brainy.

After a moment of that -- okay, three, but just because sneaking up on people was Lyle's shtick, Lyle didn't go horning in on Brainy's smarter-than-your-planet thing -- Lyle let him go and took a step back.

"Get the fuck out of there and help me with this door while you explain."

Edited 2014-01-29 06:13 (UTC)

Having his face smushed into Lyle's silk-pajamed pecs was...not actually altogether that unpleasant but someone would've had to twist his arm to get him to admit it. So instead he simply sighed a muffled sigh, reaching an arm around for an awkward, comforting pat-pat to Lyle's back.

Then Lyle moved away and told him to get down, so he reached up to grab onto the edge and flipped backward to land on his feet. Unlike Lyle, he'd already remedied his footwear problem and was now wearing leather boots he'd stolen from the diorama about Vikings.

"We're now stuck in a gloriously complicated abduction situation. Gim is still Legion leader, correct?"

Gim Allon, aka Leviathan, was dead and had been dead for years, which was why that was one of the Legion's most commonly used emergency codes. That was code for 'we're under surveillance, I'm going to discreetly pass you instructions and information in coded language, pay attention, use discretion, and don't risk speaking until I'm finished.'

"You know he is," Lyle answered casually, glancing around to see if anyone else had shown up -- or if he could see any of the equipment Brainy had indicated.

"I'm looking forward to it finally getting to my turn."

That was the other half of the code, that the first part had been heard and recognized. Lyle had already lead the Legion once, mostly under protest. Why put the actual ex-spy on your team in charge of public relations? And paperwork. God, the paperwork. Never again.

"He'll enjoy this whole mess then if he and the others ever find their way here," said Brainy, joining Lyle in looking for useful items and possibly electronics in the car. "Thus far, we're the only members of the team that seem to have been abducted. I've kept the nature of the 'friends' I've mentioned vague, but it won't be difficult for them to realize what the Legion is and what we are. We might as well not even bother keeping the fact we're supervillains a secret."

Interesting angle, isn't it, Lyle? Unfortunately, it was going to be some time before they got somewhere where Brainy could explain why it was the one he chose.

...Very interesting. Lyle threw a raised eyebrow in Brainy's direction, but his hands didn't pause in their work. As if this were a perfectly normal conversation for them to be having.

Brainy wouldn't have been his first choice for a second on an under-cover mission, or even in his top five (or seven, depending on how you wanted to count Triad). But he wasn't his last choice either (XS. Gates. Live Wire), and he trusted that Brainy both had a very good reason for it and knew the limits of his own acting skills.

"There's pros and cons both to keeping it secret and to going all out with it," he said with a shrug. "But I'm sure you've got better reasons for that assessment than 'make it less fun for Lyle to mess with the sentients'."

"The primary reason is that they're going to have access to every private conversation we have and every conversation we have in the arena has the potential to be televised. We're good but we're not that good. Besides, being ourselves may give us an advantage, given the nature of the Games."

Now Lyle knew the extent of the surveillance. This part was the tricky part, guiding Lyle into understanding the lies that had to be told and the truths that had to be understood here.

"I suppose I should tell you more about this world. Gates would love the government here - you know how he gets, always whining about those ridiculous 'freedoms' and 'rights' on some of the worlds we visit. This world has none. It's a glorious example of how a government should control its people and the needs of the many are sacrificed for the needs of the few - of the strong."

Basically, it was a living hell and went against everything the Legionnaires believed in.

"To prove their strength, we've been brought here to fight to the death in a series of gladiatorial arenas - a clear demonstration of the Capitol's power and generosity. Most of the Tributes are revived from death each time - that's where their generosity comes in, and we were brought here from our home dimensions to fight in place of the children they usually select to fight to the death in the Arena - without a means of reviving them, I'm told. At some point, they decided they wanted their favorites to have more than one chance."

He tilted his head to the side slightly, glancing sidelong at Lyle, hoping he'd gathered up everything he'd needed to.

"Every story needs a good villain, Lyle."

Lyle had been prepared for some kind of explanation about this place, so he'd been able to keep a largely neutral expression on his face while Brainy talked about horrific tyranny and children -- children -- being forced into gladiatorial combat. He did look over at Brainy sharply at the mention of the Tributes being revived from death; accepting that with no reaction seemed inappropriate.

"Interesting." He frowned down at the grease on his hands. "Remind me to pop one of the mirrors off this thing when we're done. If we're always potentially televised, I'm going to need something better than a knife to check my hair in."

If he and Brainy were any indication, at least some sentients here were probably as unwilling to kill as the they were. Some sentients were killers -- you couldn't have a fight to the death entirely of those who wouldn't kill at all -- but they could probably expect to have some allies.

Why play villains then? It would make it harder to ally with...everyone, really; the compassionate and the vindictive alike would be suspicious of them. What benefit would they get? Lyle turned the thought over in his mind and came at it from another angle: why would it be a poor choice to be a super hero?

Considering some of the things they'd done with the Legion, he and Brainy would be awful sentients to bring into this mess. They'd both personally been involved in overthrowing a corrupt President of the United Planets -- twice. If the Capitol here had any inkling of that, reviving the pair of them from death would be imprudent at best. Lyle also had a feeling that the Capitol was willing to sink to some slimy depths to motivate the Tributes to kill each other, which was perhaps the other reason for Brainy's choice: if they didn't have (public) allies, then no one would be threatened to get the two of them to kill.

Lyle curled his left hand into a fist, pressing a fingertip into the skin-warmed metal band of the ring he wore there (fake. He'd confirmed that around the same time as the negation of his serum. Hard to fake a flight ring that doesn't allow the wearer to, you know, fly). Then he turned to Brainy and smiled.

"That's very clever, Brainy. Lots of goodie-goodies in need of some proper bad guys then?"

Edited 2014-01-30 09:19 (UTC)

It was the usual. While the Legion was in the thick of it, while they were occupied with the challenge right in front of them, Brainy was always off to the side, looking at the bigger picture. He was the one looking past the Fatal Five looming up in front of them and at the satellite they could crash right on the Emerald Eye.

There was always a larger picture. While he didn't have the same mastery of the long, complicated schemes that Cosmic Boy and Lyle had, it was still his job to see that larger picture and figure out the way to get from Point A to Point B.

"We've been wandering the multiverse for so long since the destruction of our universe. There are ways to extricate oneself from the Arena, by virtue of winning or applying for release. I think we should keep our heads down and do what we do best. Eventually we can turn this to our advantage. This wouldn't be the worst world to settle on and we do have a variety of skills to offer the ruling government."

That part was him saying they needed to quietly and discreetly kick their ass. That part being the part they did best.

"I could work wonders for their economy for instance. Why they thought I'd be any good in gladiatorial combat is beyond me," he added bitterly. "I can certainly defend myself thanks to the rest of you but otherwise I'm a glorified accountant and beyond that my greatest skill lies in being mildly more proficient with technology than the rest of the team. I doubt anyone in a death match needs someone to 'cook the books,' so to speak, and I can't really money launder someone to death. They'd have been better off with Wildfire if they wanted mindless carnage."

That was the biggest clue of all of why he was taking the angle he'd chosen to take. Aside from downplaying the heroism, he was downplaying his intelligence. For once in his life.

For possibly the only time in his life. Which meant...

Edited 2014-01-30 09:23 (UTC)

It was really, really hard not to laugh at the idea of Brainy being merely "mildly more proficient" with technology than everyone else. Oh, was that what they were calling "helped machinekind be recognized as a sentient species with full rights in the U.P." these days? Lyle actually had to fake a cough to disguise the noise he wanted to make, and he hadn't needed to do that since he was thirteen.

"Good points all around," Lyle said once he was in control of himself again. As funny as it was to hear Brainy say that sort of thing, it also underscored the seriousness of the situation. Brainy was advising that they tone it down. Brainy. "You keep your head down. I'll keep mine up a bit -- one of us has got to show the folks watching at home we're worth bringing back."

"Please tell me you're not going to make a mess," he said, as if he was used to being the guy that had to figure out the logistics of what to do with the bodies and how to get rid of the bloodstains.

"If we're to stay together through all this and you let loose I might get someone on me."

"I will do my level best to keep you out of the splash zone," Lyle promised solemnly, ignoring twinge in his gut over how awful that sounded. "You just try not to walk into things that are clearly death-traps."

Seriously though, Brainy had better not forget that he didn't have a forcefield any more. It was going to be enough of a pain in the ass for Lyle to remember he couldn't fade or fly without also worrying that Brainy was going to forget that he wasn't mostly invulnerable.

Fortunately for Brainy, he'd had his shield powers for less time than Lyle'd had his invisibility and since they'd started as an outward mechanical invention, it wasn't that difficult to remember that weren't a part of him.

...That was how he'd felt about them a few years ago, at least. Now that they'd been internalized for years they were like another limb. He was going to have just as much difficulty as Lyle.

"You perfidious miscreant, you will not," he said, fiddling with some wires under the dash. He leaned his head to the side, fondly, as if talks about murder and bodily fluids didn't dissuade at all from being happy with Lyle's company. "You are aware of the fact that you have impulse control issues, yes? And a lack of imagination when it comes to finding ways to menace people. I bet you couldn't even manage one arena without killing someone, even if the result of not killing wasn't so fatal."

Edited 2014-01-30 21:27 (UTC)

If Lyle had really had impulse control issues, he'd have kissed Brainy right then and there. Yes. Fantastic. He'd just been working on a plan to avoid catching suspicion for being a supervillain who refused to kill.

"Excuse you," he hissed, as if stung by Brainy's words. "I have plenty of imagination! I don't have to kill people to scare them!"

Brainy just snorted derisively in response.

"Are you calling me a liar, Brainy?"

(Well, he was a liar. Professionally. Which is why he was going to ham this up, so it would be believable that he'd make and keep this bet.)

"Professionally so," he said, without missing a beat, examining some wires and tucking them into the bag he got at the Cornucopia.

Edited 2014-01-31 04:24 (UTC)

"What are you betting on that, smart guy?"

Lyle raised his left hand and flexed his fingers, drawing attention to the (fake) ring he wore. It was incredibly unsubtle, but since he would be giving the ring to Brainy if he did kill someone, it might as well be part of the "bet".

"You expect me to hold myself to the same limitations? As if it would be a challenge for me?"

Yes, their rings would work.

Since part of this challenge would be real, even if it was for different reasons. They'd be desperate here. Starved, thirsty, hurt, and desperate. But everyone else was under duress just like they were and it would be unconscionable to kill anyone under these conditions.

This wasn't a bet. This was a reminder of the oath they'd taken and what they'd have to give up if they broke it.

"I've been arguing for years that you've got hidden depths," Lyle said. "I'm sure you've learned something since you joined the Legion."

Brainy had learned a lot since he joined the Legion. Lyle had too -- they all had, if only the lengths to which they would go to protect the sentients of the galaxy and each other. And when their universe had been destroyed, well, their job had just gotten bigger.

There were two of them here now. That was enough. Just one was enough, but two lightened the load. And the others were coming.

"First one to kill gives up their ring."

Brainy just stared him down for a moment, then tossed him a challenging look.

"As Wildfire would say, 'it's on.'"

They had to hold out. Even if it was just the two of them. Brainy didn't know for sure if they would or could, but he knew it would be a lot easier to do it when it was the two of them.

The Legion had pulled together when they were lost and against impossible odds, a galaxy away from their home and the rest of their friends.

Maybe it was just the two of them and maybe it was whole universes this time, but the same principles applied.

Edited 2014-01-31 07:19 (UTC)

"That it is," Lyle agreed solemnly. "...Anything else I should be made aware of before we wrap up here and head up?"

"Even though we don't have our powers, I ran into someone in a strange mask who has the ability to psionically assault you with your greatest fears."

Kind of important to know.

"Fantastic."

Lyle's brain decided to be helpful and start categorizing his fears from greatest to least. He shoved those thoughts back into the mental box from whence they came. "That normal in these things, or is this something shiny and new just for me?"

"I haven't had time to review all the data from previous televised games to see if there are exceptions but power suppression seems to be the norm, provided the powers aren't because of integral facets of the person's anatomy. For example, in the last arena there was an individual that appeared to have silicon-based biology much like Dryadians and he still seemed to retain the advantages of such anatomy. Other powers seemed to be suppressed so this may be a nuance of this particular arena."

He shrugged.

"Humans have that sports-based analogy, don't they? A 'curve ball'? It seems we've had the eminently good fortune to be tossed one our first arena."

Edited 2014-02-01 04:26 (UTC)

"Psionic assault doesn't seem like likely to be an integral facet of a sentient's anatomy, so 'curve ball' it is." Lyle frowned. "That's unsettling. Approximate range of this ability's effect?"

Exactly how far away did he need to stay for safety's -- and sanity's -- sake?

"Unknown. He wasn't within sight range when I found myself affected and only approached when he had difficulties effectively exerting control over my mind."

Wasn't that reassuring?

"That's irritating," Lyle said, deliberately choosing the understatement. "How did you escape?"

"Sheer force of will."

Enough said.

Message received loud and clear: Lyle was sprocked if this particular sentient got his psionics locked on him.

"Sounds like Sensor would love him."

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