Chapter 1 - Rescued
Pacific Ocean March 30th 18:20HAST
It wasn't long ago that Jaime, Bart and Garfield were taken by Aqualad. Jaime awoke suddenly after having a nightmare of when the Scarab first latched itself to his spine making him the Blue Beetle. Jaime looked through the window of his containment pod, he was in some sort of laboratory and there was no sign of Bart or Garfield anywhere. Just another pod containing a kid who stared out into the lab as if he were waiting for something. There was no fear in his eyes just weariness. There was something else too. It was as if they hadn't broken him, at least not yet. Jaime tried his best to activate his armor so he could escape and find his friends.
Jaime Reyes the containment pod negates all combat systems...He heard the Scarab say.
Two alien like creatures walked into the room. They spoke in a language that Jaime couldn't understand.
Translating...The Scarab said and suddenly it was as if they were speaking English. They went towards the other kid's pod.
"His powers seem to appear more frequently as of late. This merits further study." The female smiled.
"Now, Now Scientist. This particular Meat's Meta Gene reflects something that the Reach has dealt with many times before. We should be delicate with this one. Let him rest, for now." The male spoke.
Another, much larger being approached. It looked as if he had armor just like the one that the Scarab creates but black.
"I say we let the Scientist have her fun...after all this Meat's will is not so different from our enemy." The Black Beetle's voice was deep and menacing. He pressed a button on the boy's pod shocking him. The boy cried out in pain then went limp, unconscious. The three then turned to Jaime's pod then to their computer.
"This human beetle is a disappointment...How could he be the Reach's undercover operative when his Scarab refuses to function on mode?" The Scientist complained.
"Then perform a hard reset." The Black Beetle replied.
"True but that would kill the host body..." The Scientist grimaced. She had done everything in the name of her research but she did feel some remorse when her subjects died.
"Finding another host will be of no issue. It is true that removing the Scarab will kill this Jaime Reyes but Meat...is plentiful here..."
They're going to kill me...Jaime's stomach twisted with fear. They were planning to remove his Scarab and kill him. He loved being a hero and most of all didn't want to die.
Meanwhile...
Alex had been a captive of the aliens called the Reach for over two weeks. They had done many strenuous tests on him. Injected him with random fluids. They poked, prodded and took several DNA samples. All just to see him activate his "Meta Gene". They kept him alive by feeding him this pink fluid through a tube. The female scientist said "It has everything that you need." But he knew it was a lie. The Reach kept referring to to him and the other teens as "Meat" and when "Meat" was spoiled that meant someone was taken away, never to come back. He wondered if he would ever get out. There were times were if he wondered if they would consider him spoiled like some of the other teens and put him out of his misery. But most of all he wondered how his Mom was doing. She was probably losing her mind now wondering what happened.
Alex suddenly awoke with the image of the Reach's beetle-like warrior etched in his mind. He was startled by the loud, blaring sound of alarms going off. Across the room from him was a boy a little younger than him being electrocuted by the Reach"s machines. The boy cried out in pain. Suddenly a red blur came racing in, knocking out the Scientist and the few soldiers that were protecting her.
Please let this be the Justice League He pleaded within his mind.
It was a kid dressed in a Red and White suit wearing some kind of goggles. He quickly destroyed the door of the pod that the other boy was held in and pulled him out.
"Jaime are you alright?" He asked.
"I'm ok. There's someone in the pod over there..." The boy wearily replied.
The speedster sped over to Alex's pod, destroying it as he did with the first. Alex gave a sigh of relief. It was over. The torture, the strange testing. All of it.
"Thank you..." He smiled at the hero. "I'm Alex."
"Call me Impulse...I'd love to chat but we gotta go. You ok to walk? I have to carry my friend over there."
Alex stood up and stumbled a bit. He tried him best to stand. He wasn't waiting for Impulse or anyone to have to come back. For all he knew, the Reach could pod him again. He composed himself and nodded.
"Yeah...I'm good to go."
Impulse grabbed the other boy and the three escaped the lab.
"I'm Jaime." The boy weakly smiled.
"Alex." He replied.
"Whoa! What happened to having a secret ID and all?" Impulse interjected.
"It's ok Hermano. He's been through much worse..." Suddenly Jaime became covered in a beetle like armor similar to the Black Beetle that Alex saw earlier.
Alex backed away in fear. "You're one of them!? I'm not going back!" He shouted.
"Relax! I'm not with them...My Scarab doesn't detect anything odd within him."
Impulse smiled. "Well then I'm Bart Allen or just Bart."
As they traveled through the corridors, Jaime explained to Alex about his Scarab and Bart told Jaime about the Blue Beetle helping the Reach take over the world...in the future. It made no sense to him. Bart was from the future? How does Jaime help the Reach? Most importantly...what happened to him? He had been given some sort of power through the Reach's experiments. What was he supposed to do now? Despite the grave situation the three of them were in, these thoughts persisted in his mind.
"Wait..is that? Beast Boy?" Jaime called out.
As they approached the door to the ship's exit, there was a large green gorilla.
What the? Alex looked puzzled.
"That's a member of our team. Don't worry." Bart assured him.
Blue Beetle put his hand to the door and it opened. Beast Boy grabbed what appeared to be an unconscious Martian woman. Other younger heroes were also scattered across the room. Then Alex saw him. The "Black Beetle" that he had seen from within his pod. Part of him was afraid of what would happen, another part of him felt rage towards the Reach for what they did to him. His body became covered in a glowing green aura.
"Little brother...one way or another I am going to put you back on mode." Black Beetle said to Jaime.
Jaime took a few steps. He still appeared weary from leaving his pod. He muttered something that escaped Alex's ears. Suddenly both Blue and Black Beetle were going toe to toe.
Alex stepped up to help. He was afraid, more afraid than he'd ever been but he wouldn't back down and the more he conquered that fear, the more he wanted to smash Black Beetle into the ground.
"This is between me and him! Go to the Bio Ship now!" Blue Beetle yelled.
One of the teen's had unknowingly broken through the ship's walls and water came crashing though. Both Blue and Black's arms into dual blades. While the two fought evenly matched, Alex, the other teens and heroes ran into the Bio Ship. A man wearing a black costume with a blue bird-like emblem was it's pilot.
"Everyone is aboard except Blue!" One of the heroes shouted.
"I'm going back in for him!" Impulse tried running back after Jaime but a wall of rushing water knocked him back into the ship.
"Nightwing close the hatch! It won't do us any good if we drown or get crushed at this depth." The girl said.
One of the heroes looked as if he had the appearance of a fish with large red eyes. At first it was shocking but Alex pieced together that he was Atlantean due to the "A" symbol on his belt. He had seen that on Aquaman's costume as well.
"Wait that's Blue!" The Atlantean pointed out.
Blue Beetle's body was floating out from the damaged hull. The Reach ship began firing at us as we sped away.
"Nightwing open a hatch...I'm going after Blue." the Atlantean looked at Nightwing with a fierce expression.
Nightwing nodded and La'gann dove through an opening im the Bio Ship. He swam at incredible speeds dodging laser beams from all sides. He quickly grabbed Blue and swam back. He surrounded them in a veil of water creating a small splash upon entry.
"Looks like a mission well done..." Nightwing smiled.
Mission? Alex thought. Something big was happening. Not just big but huge. After what he just experienced, he knew that he was going back to his old life, he wouldn't be able to. Not now, not ever.
A/N Hope you enjoyed this chapter. I kept going back and forth from the episode to writing. Aside from this episode and the interviews from "Cornered", things will be different. Major events will be mentioned like the War World and Jaime's defection will be mentioned but minor things won't. Next chapter will be the interviews then the Teens transition to Star. Please review. If there's anything that could be improved I'd like feed back even if it's negative. Just no flames please!