thearena | (no subject)

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(no subject)

Who| Danny, Open
What| Sneaking around the fossil exhibit
Where| Floor 4
When| Week 2
Warnings/Notes| Possible swearing

Danny had been moving from floor to floor for the past two weeks, getting to know the people who weren't currently trying to kill him, and staying the hell away from those who looked like they'd try to beat his head in with his own crowbar.

It seemed like a fairly decent strategy so far, if only because he was still alive, and hopefully it would carry him through another few weeks if he was lucky.

Currently, he was sneaking around the fossil exhibit, putting another thing on his mental list of reasons Panem was horrible. Namely, the disturbing genetically engineered monsters.

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The thing about being sneaky was that if you were being sneaky and someone else was being sneaky, there was a good chance you might sneak right into each other.

Brainy quietly walked in to the same little area Danny was in and noticed the teen the same time Danny might notice him.

Immediately, he held up his very menacing and dangerous...laser pointer?

Danny, spotting Brainy, immediately went on guard. He held the crowbar (that he had no real intention of using) up in a vaguely threatening position.

"...wait. Is that a laser pointer?" The ex-halfa lowered his guard.

"Green guy that was on the network, right?"

Edited 2014-01-30 08:24 (UTC)

"It used to be."

Well, wasn't that ominous?

"You're the boy that was in dire need of a muzzle, correct? I have no particular quarrel with you. Provided you don't try to assault me with that crude bludgeon, I have no intention of causing you harm, so I suggest a momentary truce."

"...If I had a dollar for every time I heard someone say that."
The number of inventions his parents had build that had been something normal to begin with was mind boggling, really.

"Truce accepted. I'm not exactly looking to fight anybody."

"You're not going to survive long then," said Brainy. "Of course neither am I if we stand out in the open like this. If we're going to converse, we should relocate to somewhere with more cover. I wouldn't be averse to sharing information."

Danny rolled his eyes. "I said I didn't want to fight. Never said anything about not breaking someone's kneecaps if they start anything."

"Any place you have in mind?"

"The stairwell. Picking the lock is child's play."

He nodded for Danny to follow, making sure to keep him in his line of sight. Scared teenager or not, he was in possession of an intimidating crowbar and, well, Brainy certainly was in possession of kneecaps.

"Stairwell it is."

And off to find the stairwell they went, past monsters, dinosaurs, wooly mammoths, sabertooth tigers, more monsters, and more dinosaurs, until finally they reached the door.

"Stay within view over here to the side, please. I'd prefer to avoid the unpleasant surprise of a crowbar caving in the back of my skull," he said as he knelt down, took out two thing pieces of metal and started picking the lock. "You'll have to forgive me for not being overly trusting."

"Hadn't even crossed my mind." But he did as asked.

"Pretty sure it goes against the superhero handbook, or something." He added. Not that the traditional no-killing rule was the reason he was holding back. He had other, far more personal reasons for wanting to avoid it.

Brainy's eyes flitted back up to Danny's face even as his hands kept picking the lock as if he didn't need to look to actually do it.

"Oh, don't tell me you're one of those. I thought you seemed intelligent, if reactive."

After all, he'd immediately adjusted to the advice of keeping his head down.

"I didn't really get a choice." Danny defended. "I mean I sort of did, but it was either be a superhero, or let my town get destroyed by rampaging ghosts. I went with the one where people didn't die."

Edited 2014-02-01 03:29 (UTC)

"Don't excuse it," Brainy said as if it was something horrible Danny was guilty of, that he should stop trying to rationalize.

There was a click and the door opened. Brainy stepped in sideways, keeping an eye on the teenager and also on the stairwell inside. Fortunately, it was empty. For now.

He gestured him inside.

"I've been attempting to give these...alliances that are considerd so important a try, and you seemed to, ah, tolerate me. At the very least we can exchange information about what hazards we've seen."

In reality, while Danny looked like he was maybe the Galactic age of consent for the UP, he knew most humans matured slower than many other species. Mostly he was just trying to give a teenager a somewhat safer location for a little while to catch his breath.

Maybe he could twist this as trying to recruit a minion? Somehow?

"Not excusing it, defending it." Calling it an excuse was like saying he still treated it like a chore, rather than a calling.

"As for hazards? Tar pit down on 3rd, if you haven't been there yet. And the "Don't worry, the volcano is dormant" sign? Only way they could've made that more of an obvious trap would be by spray painting "NOT GOING TO BLOW" on it."

Brainy almost smirked at that. Making fun of the ridiculous situations you found yourself in while superheroing was practically superheroing's official sport.

"I don't know if you've heard it, but there's ominous beeping on this floor near the prehistoric mammal fossil collection." He added, "Which I'd put odds on animating and trying to kill us all, by the way. There's no way that we're all getting through this arena without at least one exhibit coming to life and trying to consume us."

"Right, the old "Dead animals aren't as dead as they look" trick. Because apparently just watching people kill each other wasn't entertaining enough."

He might not be able to do anything about the Games right this minute, but he could at least take solace in mocking the hell out of the set-up.

"So, I didn't get your name earlier."

"Brainiac 5."

My, didn't that sound kind of sinister.

The sinister sounding name clicked with the comment about superheroes.

"...normally I don't judge other people's names, but that sort of sounds, supervillain-ish."

Please tell him he hadn't been joking around and having fun with a supervillain.

This was it. If all of this was televised, he needed the right moment and this was it. Cornering a powerless, confessed superhero in a dark stairwell after having lulled him into a false sense of security.

"You know the doors do lock again from the inside. You have to pick them to get back out onto the floors."

The door had been left open just a crack and now he nudged it shut with his foot. Meaning Danny was stuck with him, crow bar or not.

He flashed a cold smile that wasn't at all meant to be reassuring but was also a peace offering of sorts.

"But you needn't worry. I'd say we're all equals here, regardless of what we were before, wouldn't you? I'm willing to put past predilections aside for the moment if you are."

"In my experience, when someone like you says that? It means they either want something, or they haven't decided which part of my back they want to shove the knife into yet."

Really, if Danny had to pick what Vlad would've said in this specific situation? It would be Brainy's speech, word for word.

"And you had some pretty good chances to put that knife, or, y'know, laser beam, in me earlier. So, question is, what do you want from me?"

"There are certain resources I won't be able to avail myself of. When it comes to sponsors, the plucky teenager, a depowered selfless hero, trying to beat the odds has more of a chance of getting extra food or resources than someone like myself. I don't socialize well with others."

He went on, "Conversely, you lack the capacity to turn household items into death lasers. I'm proposing the occasional fair trade. Information, food, other resources."

His more sinister expression faded somewhat from his face.

"I'm not the kind of of villain that causes wanton cruelty. Wanton destruction, perhaps, but our organization specializes in wetwork, burglary, toppling already-corrupt governments to put equally corrupt ones into place. We are bad people, often dealing with bad people, who primarily hurt bad people. If we hadn't taken on the jobs someone else would have been hired in our stead. We find criminal activities that specifically target innocents to be...crude and senseless in their nature."

He found a good way to word it.

"We aren't overly sentimental but we do have class."

In normal circumstances, Danny would have already tried to take the person he believes Brainiac 5 to be down. But these were not normal circumstance, and Danny was perceptive enough to realize that a villain like the Coluan wouldn't be any happier about the situation they'd found themselves in than he was.

Danny didn't like him, but he'd allied himself with people he didn't like before.

"Fine," he sighed, "Point made. I can't exactly afford to be picky about allies, you're not the worst I could do, and for now, we've got the same goal. You've got a deal. But I'm keeping an eye on you."

"Naturally. But consider the fact that any betrayal would be televised. It's in my best interest to demonstrate that I can hold to my word. I know you won't believe me, but you won't have to watch too closely. You know what I am and that's half the battle, after all."

He went on slowly, "Besides, I...I suppose admire the conviction some heroes have. Respect is something that goes beyond morality. I doubt I'll ever earn yours, but you may wind up earning mine."

Creating the illusion of complexity was the best thing to do in this situation. Cackling sadists were neither interesting for someone else to watch for a prolonged period, nor would anyone trust one.

Edited 2014-02-09 04:43 (UTC)

"Stroking my ego is actually a pretty good way to make me more suspicious."

Especially since everyone he calls friend tended to spend their spare time deflating his.

"So, let's try something. Call it a trust exercise. I don't need anything from you right this minute, so I'll give you part of my food stash in trade for something later."

Brainy actually smiled slightly at Danny's comment of being made more suspicious but it wasn't creepy or sneering, more like he found how sharp he was genuinely endearing.

"Specify the nature of this something. If it's an even trade or some equivalent favor would be perfectly acceptable, but let it be known now that I'm not going to do something dangerous like kill someone for you in exchange for a meager share of rations."

"Even trade. And for someone who calls themselves Brainiac 5, you're terrible at paying attention," He snarked.

"Not going to kill anyone generally includes not making someone else do it for me."

"There are always those who have a great gift for hypocrisy, Daniel. Superheroes certainly aren't immune to it. But noted."

Definitely noted. It would have been an easy course of action to take for a scared teenager with an unwillingness to kill. That he didn't even want others to do it on his behalf...

It was a breath of fresh air after spending so much time entrenched in Capitol media. Principles were a beautiful thing.

Edited 2014-02-19 04:51 (UTC)

Danny wasn't the only one looking at the fossils. Particularly since Don knew that it was always a possibility that they could come alive. He had been through too many Arenas to discount the idea, crazy as it sounded.

Of course, was currently trying to open one up, both for reassurance that they wouldn't come alive - and for a hiding place, when he wasn't on the constant move. And it was during this that he saw Danny.

Quietly, he began to slide into the shadows, wondering whether to confront Danny or not at the present moment.

Danny got up to move to a different spot. As he carefully looking around, he spotted movement in the shadows.

Slowly he picked up his things, and started backing away in the other direction, trying to figure out an exit strategy.

For the love of--the narrow area of the museums left practically no margin of error, and Don was making errors left and right. This didn't bode well for him, in the long run.

Eventually, Don's voice echoed from...who knew where. At least the acoustics hid his precise location.

"Its just me."

"Some clarification'd be nice" Danny answered warily. He'd only heard Don's voice once, definitely not enough to recognize it, and hadn't even gotten his name.

"I...don't want to kill you?"

Really, how much clarification can he give, short of coming out in the open ~~yet again~~?

Danny facepalmed.

"And I don't want to kill anyone in general. I meant who are you?"

See, this was why he didn't want to say anything!

"...Donatello."

"Still have no idea who you are.' Again, he never got Don's name.

"Was there a point to this whole conversation or not?"

"...No," Don replied, his voice mumbled. "I was trying to avoid you, actually."

Edited 2014-02-03 00:52 (UTC)

"Yeah. Great job with that."

He tapped his foot impatiently. "Are you going to come out here? Like said, pretty solid "no murdering anyone" policy that I'm trying to stick to.

There was a sigh, and then a silence. The moments went by, as if to say, no, he wouldn't come out.

At least, until he suddenly appeared next to Danny, arms folded.

"Gah!"

Danny backed away suddenly, stumbling and falling on his butt.

"I said "come out here", not "give me a heart attack"."

"...Sorry. Habit."

He gave a shrug.

"Ninja and all."

Hating the capitol was sort of a national pastime for tributes, so far as Barbara was concerned. The kidnapping, the muttations, the screaming fans who lived to watch them tear each other limb from limb...

She'd avoided this floor, mostly do to being creeped out by it. Only the hope that everyone else felt the same way brought her there, now. One hope shattered, she wondered if it wasn't too late to slip away. Her back was to the stairwell, she could always run away - maybe it wouldn't kill her (ha ha) to say hi.

".............Hi."--

Well, that was definitely not the body language of someone who was going to try to kill him.

"Heya. Don't worry, I'm not gonna start anything."

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