Title: Each of Us Becomes the Helpless
Summary: When you feel helpless, sometimes your best bet is to call an expert. Who the expert is kind of depends, doesn't it?
Spoilers: Spoilers for Blue Beetle #27
Notes: This is for Psych30 #12, Collective Unconscious, Fanfic 100 #55, Spirit
It took Jaime a week (and a lot of nervous pacing) to get up the nerve to make the call. But within an hour, he was leaning in the doorway to the living room, trying to look cool and calm.
"Hey," he said to his parents. "I gotta go to Gotham."
His mother glanced up from the newspaper and gave him the look. The one that said she wasn't sure she wanted to know what was up, but she had to ask. "Batman called?"
"I called him," Jaime said, trying not to shuffle his feet. Superheroes didn't shuffle their feet, darn it.
Mom and Dad looked at each other, doing that married telepathy thing.
"Okay. No fighting anyone from Arkham Asylum unless Batman says it's okay," Dad said.
Jaime nodded. "No problem. I won't be gone long. I just need to talk to him in person."
He itched to let the scarab free before he was out the door, but he waited until he was out of sight before armoring up and taking to the sky.
Jaime upset? the scarab asked.
"A little. It's not your fault."
The scarab sent an interrogative, but Jaime just asked it to head to Gotham. He spent the time rehearsing what he wanted to ask, for the millionth time.
They landed lightly on top of the building Batman had named as the rendezvous point. The scarab showed him a map of Gotham and they both got a good laugh out of the fact that it was the point farthest southwest in Gotham proper.
"Well, he could have put us down in a corn field, I suppose," Jaime said aloud.
"I'm too conspicuous there," the deep voice said behind him.
Thankfully the scarab hid his jump, and Jaime turned. "Hi. Thanks for, uh, letting me bug you." He winced at the unintentional pun and Batman just looked at him. In a weird way, Batman seemed to be giving him a look exactly like his mother's, and Jaime wondered if he was raising his eyebrows behind the cowl. "Um, anyway, I wanted to talk to you about magic."
Jaime would be willing to swear that Batman actually twitched. "Magic?" Batman repeated. "I've studied it, but I▓m no magician. And besides, isn't--"
"Yes, my girlfriend's an incredibly powerful magician," Jaime said, before realizing he'd just interrupted Batman. "Sorry. It's just that everybody points that out without letting me finish."
"Pardon me," Batman said drily enough to evoke the Sahara. "Pray continue."
Jaime took a deep breath, wishing that talking to Batman didn't always make him sweat under the scarab's armor. "I want to know how to deal with magic. I mean, I've got the scarab and it's great and incredibly powerful but...it's technology. And sufficiently advanced technology still gets its ass kicked by magic."
"Ah." Batman's mouth twitched in an almost-smile. "The demons."
"Yeah, the demons."
Batman waited, looking like he could stand there all night.
"The scarab and I...we tried everything we could think of. I've got this incredibly powerful alien technology and I've worked with the Titans and I got my butt kicked. There was nothing I could do."
"There's always something you can do," Batman said, his tone making Jaime stand up straighter. "If you believe there's nothing you can do, you've already lost the fight."
Jaime wanted to say 'yes, sir,' but resisted, waiting instead.
"It's true," Batman began slowly, "that technology often doesn't work in a direct attack on magic. You can't just shoot at it and expect the laws of physics to work the same way."
"That sucks," Jaime muttered to himself.
"Indeed it does. But that's why you need to be prepared for magic as well as technology."
"How can you prepare for something that works by a handwave?" Jaime clenched his fists, the frustration bleeding into his voice.
"Believe it or not, magic has its own rules, as you might recall from your fight with Eclipso."
(Jaime felt himself flush, hoping Batman hadn't heard about the dentist part.)
"You can learn those rules and learn things that you can carry or do to affect the magic and magicians attacking you." Batman paused. "You may even be able to train the scarab to track certain mystical energies to their source. I'll look into that."
"Thank you." The scarab sent him a doubtful thought, but Jaime mentally reminded him this was Batman and he knew what he was doing.
"It is...frustrating to deal with magic." Batman's look was sympathetic, which went oddly with the cape and cowl.
"How..." Jaime trailed off, chickening out when it came to asking Batman a personal question.
Batman looked at him for a long moment and Jaime held his breath. "I never stop thinking and fighting," Batman said eventually. "Just as you did with the demons."
"But I didn't--"
Batman held up a hand and Jaime closed his mouth with a snap. "Thinking and fighting. With more practice, you'll become better at both. But you're not exactly hopeless or helpless now."
Jaime's jaw wanted to drop, but his mother's training kicked in. "Thank you."
A bright flash of light brought them both to attention and Batman glared up at the batsignal lighting up the sky. He tore himself away from the sight and focused on Jaime. "You need to study everything you can about magic, even if you can never practice it yourself."
"Great, more homework," Jaime muttered.
Batman paused, then that almost-smile appeared again. "You remind me of Nightwing when he was your age."
Jaime blinked.
"In fact, you remind me of Nightwing in many ways."
"I..."
"Yes, that was a compliment. Try not to faint." And Batman shot a line to a nearby building and was gone.
Jaime sat down somewhat abruptly. "Wow," he said. "My life is really weird."
How weird? the scarab asked.
"Never mind." Jaime rolled his eyes, realizing who he was talking to. "C'mon, buddy. Apparently we've got a lot more work to do."
But as the scarab lifted them into the sky, Jaime's heart felt lighter than it had in a week. According to Batman, he wasn't helpless or hopeless. And hey, if that wasn't enough for an ordinary kid from El Paso, what was?
--end--