Summary: Brainy and Nia go to the DEO desert facility sometime after the season 4 finale.
"We need to take a trip to the DEO desert facility," said Alex. "We need to know if there's anything amiss this time after the disaster with Lockwood and Lex."
"I shall accompany you on this mission," offered Brainy.
"I'll come too," added Nia. Brainy smiled at her and Alex tried her best to maintain her composure, but those two were just so adorable.
"J'onn will meet us at the van in fifteen minutes, so get ready," said Alex. Brainy and Nia nodded and went to prepare. Nia put on her supersuit and met the others at the van. J'onn was driving with Alex navigating, leaving Nia and Brainy in the backseat together, which suited them fine.
"We have a four hour-drive ahead of us, so you might want to get some sleep," commented J'onn.
"J'onn, you were supposed to turn right just now," said Alex.
"No, we still have another four miles," replied J'onn.
They continued to argue, and Nia leaned onto Brainy's shoulder. She was asleep in minutes. Brainy rested his head on hers and fell asleep too. They had both taken a one A.M. shift the night before and were clearly exhausted.
Alex and J'onn had finally figured out where to go, and Alex turned around to see how the two of them were doing, only to find them asleep together. She noted that they were holding hands. Even in sleep, they were inseparable. Since Brainy had left Nia at Shelly Isalnd when he was rebooted, he had been hesitant to leave her side, even for a moment.
She turned in her seat and pulled out her phone to get a picture of the two of them. She sent it to Kara, who replied with a bunch of heart-eyes emojis. She silently showed J'onn, who tried to keep a straight face. Then, remembering it was just Alex, he allowed himself to smile at the love between the two young teammates.
They woke up about twenty minutes before the van pulled up in front of the DEO desert facility.
"J'onn and I will check with the staff and review their documents. You two will stay out here. Someone may have been aware that we were coming here and try to attack us," said Alex.
Nia and Brainy nodded in assent.
As soon as Alex and J'onn went inside, Nia said, "Brainy, why don't you take a look from above? We can only see so much from here on the ground."
Brainy hesitated. "Are you sure you wouldn't rather have me stay here with you?"
"Brainy, I can take care of myself. I'll circle the perimeter from the ground while you circle from above. We can go in opposite directions and meet back here in ten minutes," said Nia.
Brainy ran some calculations. The odds of her being attacked by an alien and being put in a life-threatening situation was about seven point three percent. Not bad, considering they had faced worse.
"Alright," he conceded. "But if you feel anything is slightly wrong, call me immediately."
"Sounds good," said Nia. They went in opposite directions.
From his vantage point in the sky, Brainy could see nothing wrong. The desert stretched out for miles, with few landmarks or vegetation. He could see Niaon the other side of the compound. He was about to turn away, but movement in the corner of his vision caught his eye. He almost thought his mide was playing tricks on him, but then he saw it. And his blood ran cold.
Nia was heading in the direction of a pile of rocks, and within the rocks, there was a nest of snakes. Rattlesnakes, if he had to guess. His usually sharp mind went completely numb from fear. All he knew was that he had to get her out of there.
