The view was also probably spoiled somewhat by the way Lyle suddenly looked like he wanted to throttle Brainy. It was less put-on and more honest than Lyle would prefer his facial expressions worn while playing a supervillain with impulse-control problems to be. At least the breathe-hold-release was as still centering when he was being deliberately obvious about it.

"I'm suffering under an illusion? That's a funny thing to say when you're suffering under the illusion that resignation to your inevitable death is remotely useful. Or entertaining."

Entertaining. That was the point, Brainy, that was key. They both knew they were going to die in here unless the Legion showed up and tore the whole place down, but dying in here didn't have to mean what James' or Gim's or Jan's deaths had meant. It could be what Tinya's and Garth's deaths had been -- genuine deaths, horrifically traumatic, but not the end. But they had to be entertaining. They had to convince these awful squajs that it would be worth whatever the cost was to bring them back to life for another round.

They wanted to see them fight to survive. Lying down and waiting for death wasn't going to do them any good.