PREVIOUSLY … Jaime Reyes gained a powerful scarab in the wake of the wizard Shazam!'s death. With it, Jaime transformed into an armored super-human and saved the world as Blue Beetle. Returning home, Jaime finds he's missed a week of his life … and prom. Since, he has come out to his friends with his secret, seen eyeless freaks no one else can and been grounded until graduation, though he broke that curfew two weeks ago to save best friend Paco as Blue Beetle from a gang war.
NOTE: This story takes place during the One Year Gap.
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Imagine waking up to find an ancient living artifact had grafted itself to you. Imagine that it granted you unbelievable and unexplained powers, making you fill shoes you never wanted. Imagine being a teenager who saved the world only to have to explain it to your parents. Imagine if your world was forever changed. Sound cool? He'll trade you.
BLUE BEETLE: DCINFINITY
vol. 1, issue 3: "Ceremonial Sacrifice"
written by Bowie Sessions
"My fate cannot be mastered; it can only be collaborated with and thereby, to some extent, directed. Nor am I the captain of my soul; I am only its noisiest passenger."
– Aldous Huxley
Bowie High Campus
My family is doing nothing but talking about how proud they are of me, about how they want me to pick a school near them so I can still see them whenever they miss me … well, they put it as 'whenever I miss them', but I get the secret Parent Code.
Personally, I think the Black Robe and Tassel-swinging Graduation Cap isn't exactly the best fashion statement, but it's nice to wear it. The uniform means freedom.
To her credit, Milagro's not doing much of anything except looking already bored as we walk up onto the field that will see me graduating this place. I can think of the Wizard of Oz right now, when it comes to my baby sister. I'll miss you most of all, Tin-man. Or whoever she misses most. I forget the specifics.
"We're out of this place!" Paco calls out joyously as he slings his arm around me, running up from behind. He punches me in the side playfully, and I can't help but grin. Paco's been there for me these past two weeks, wanting to know every detail about the attack on Brother Eye, listening about Booster Gold bugging me on the bus, and wanting me to introduce him to Supergirl… in short, he's been my friend. I needed that.
It's Brenda, who walks up from behind Paco, which makes my mile-wide smile disintegrate a little bit. I slap Paco on the back in a return of those congratulations. "One sec," I offer him as I walk over to Brenda. He doesn't give me that space, though, as he hangs on my tail. Like the Robin to my Batman.
"Hey, Jaime," she says as I walk in front of her, stopping her path. She gives a feigned little smile and nervously brushes a strand of hair behind her ear.
"Yeah, whatever. Brenda, look, we're all about to go separate ways, this is our last summer, I just – I want to know why you're doing this. We been friends since second grade, and—" she clears her throat and I shut up. I'd put my hands in my pockets but the robe precludes that. Left with an awkward lack of placement, I end up crossing my arms.
She shrugs her shoulders. "It's just … I mean, Paco's been telling me about how you and … well, how cool it is and all…"
"Ain't that the truth. I feel like France right now. And you guys are all renaming your food 'Freedom Fries' cuz I refuse to participate in either side of the war…" Paco interjects helpfully.
She finishes, eyeing my family who watches, trying to coach her words from spoiling my secret. I appreciate it. "But it's … really scary. Like, Frankenstein scary."
"I swear I'm still the old Jaime, Brenda. I swear, okay? Just say you'll go on that road-trip and give us a chance, okay? I'm so tired of giving you space to figure out what's up with our friendship, y'know?"
She smiles at that, and nods. "Okay," she says. Then, suddenly, she hugs me. I seem surprised, but give her a hug back. Paco rushes in to join, and grabs us both, hoisting us both up off our feet with a squeak emitted from us both.
Mom raises the camera quickly, aims, and presses its button.
KLIK.
Socorro, Texas
KLIK. KLIK.
Cody Driscoll was a Teen Titan, a hybrid alien spliced with human DNA to create a man who is ten times as good as a human at anything. Smarter, faster, stronger. During the Infinite Crisis, even the abilities of ten men were nothing compared to a crazed Superboy. Facing this disaster, Cody stood strong and for it had his arm ripped out of its socket. His name as a hero was 'Risk'. He took them, you see. Risks don't always pan out.
Tears are in Cody's eyes as he lies on his back against what remains of the wall in his trailer. The silver bullet style trailer lies in shreds, with his mother laying still in a mess of her own blood on the devastated front steps.
Risk stares up into the eyes of the alien huntress that approaches, every bullet simply impacting her skin and doing nothing more than maybe bruising. "Please stop…" he whispers, and she snaps her four arms down. Three of them spear him in non-vital areas with the blades bound in them. The last grips a pipe on the ceiling and pulls her up, to allow her to mule-kick him in the chest.
Sent flying through what remains of the shredded wall and outside, Cody hits the ground, blood seeping from his lips and his wounds before his eyes waver … and close.
The alien huntress rubs her forearms together. A sharp, subsonic vibration shudders through the air.
Bowie High Campus
Shaking hands and giving each other their last warm hugs, Jaime Reyes fell back as he watched Paco Gutierrez and Brenda McCarter pass him by in the organized line of students, who all file into their places and assigned seats in the bleachers. We've been training for this for two days, to make sure we got it down right. To make sure it looked right.
So that for the rest of our lives we remember today. I hope not.
I wave at my parents who tape me. "Thank God they relaxed."
Anna looks over my way. I met all the R-named people on Wednesday that I didn't know. "Where did you go for a week?" she asks, nosing into the conversations I've had with Andy. Or, at least, the ones which we spoke in English.
"Just went for a drive. Ever have to … figure out who you are?" I ask, quietly. It's not a lie – but it's not where I was.
"Nope," Andy disagrees, making a little air-kiss motion to his girlfriend five rows away.
"Conclusive. You two aren't related," Anna whispers conspiratorially as the ceremony begins.
Socorro, Texas
The tall, freakish alien woman walks into waist-high grass in an untamed field. She sheathes a blade and extends the one bare hand into the open air, feeling for something. She seems to sense an object, her tendrils quivering with attentiveness from where they lay down the length of her neck, parting to reveal the depression at the base of her skull.
She stops, suddenly, her hand finding contact. --Biometrics recognized. Opening hatch.--
From thin air, a door slides open, revealing a staircase and a hallway within this expanse of emptiness. She walks up the stairs, dragging behind her the bloodied form of the ex-Titan known as Risk.
--Opening Containment Storage,-- it reads as she brings the body of Risk into the cell and steps back. The cell seals, a curtain of electricity covering the air between her and the prisoner. Above Risk is another level, and another level of cells. To his left and his right are row upon row of the same. The ship extends straight down to a pilot area, and in its rear most quarters foodstuffs.
--Entity does not match identified target.--
The alien huntress turns her head in a curious quirking.
--Identified target within range of sensors. Distance to Target: 15.3 miles.--
The huntress removes her two knives from their sheathes and moves quickly to the hatch.
--Confirmed: Proceeding on Foot. West by South-West.—
Inside, Risk's eyes blink open to take in his surroundings. Reaching limply to his belt, he presses a small button on his belt-buckle. A small red 'T' glows.
Bowie High Campus
"Principal… Vice Principal… Faculty… Students… Mom, Dad, all the other parents here … you have set a shining example of leadership in a world in the wake of such disasters. This school has the most patriotic message of any school in the country, and you showed us that spirit when guiding us especially this last year when so many families and cities felt the pain of a war from those we trusted above us—"
I totally stop paying attention. Deliver me from this total idiot. I look around quietly, and meet Brenda's eyes. I smile to her, brightly, and she returns it. It's good that she'll admit I exist. Maybe things are going to work out from here.
Maybe I will go to Stanford. Business Management or something… I don't know. Things'll work out. They always do, right?
Titans HQ, San Francisco
A single alarm sounds. A distress signal. The computer identifies its user: RISK / CODY DRISCOLL. LOCATION: EL PASO, TEXAS
The map forms the coordinates. The street crossroad.
A green hand comes to slap the computer's over-ride. "Titans Together, right?" the hand's owner says quietly, his voice tired.
Bowie High Campus
The applause is intermittent and waning, as they gain higher and higher alphabetical order. People get tired of clapping somewhere after Golightly, David. "Ravi, Jennifer," they call out in the continued flow of applause.
"Redding, Vance. Rehbeing, Tara. Reid, Craig. Reitze, Shannon. Rene, Adena." I can feel the pressure and excitement surge in me. One, I'm about to graduate high school. Two, I'm about to finally stop being grounded by my parents. 'Until graduation' they said, after-all.
"Reyes, Andrew," they call out and I tense up. It's me up next, and I stand up in preparation. Me and Andy, no relation.
"Reyes, Jaime," they call out and I smile as I walk up to the Principal, who gives me the most important piece of paper in my life thus far and shakes my hand. I wave to the crowd and my parents, who seem squealing with glee. Milagro cheers, too, until I catch her doing it. Brat.
"Ribichini, Anna," I hear called out behind me as I begin walking to the other end of the stage. I can't believe I'm finally a graduate. It's about time. But now I'm worried. I told Dad I'd take a semester off before college, but I'm not sure I mean it. I don't know if I'm ready… and the questions are going to start the second we get in the car. If they can even wait that long.
"Rivera, Kyle," is the next name called as I make it to the end of the stage. I'm about to step down it when I hear screams. My head snaps up and the ceremony turns to silence. I see it in the crowd as it comes surging forward. I hear someone collapse to the ground from wounds, fully aware this thing has a sword in its hand.
…hands. All four of them. What the hell is this thing? It's got no eyes, no mouth, no nose and no ears. It's just got like … a slope on front, and these stalks for hair. Four arms, claw-pincer looking hands … this thing is definitely not from around here. Frozen in place, I'm as scared as everyone else is. Come on, Beetle, come on…
The creature leaps onto stage, and stops. It spans its four arms wide and crouches, the tendrils it calls hair twitching as it seems to smell for something … and I believe it is.
With an agonizing cry, I collapse to my knees and watch a blue beetle-pack form from my vertebrae, snapping its bands around my chest and shoulders. I begin to stand back up, working through the pain as I regale the creature, which turns all four blades carried in its hands towards me.
"I'm guessing you're looking for me, then," I challenge it nervously. The crowd watches in horror, some screaming, some stunned. They just saw me transform into the Blue Beetle. On stage. In front of every person I've ever known. I think my secret is out a little bit.
I don't really expect the thing to be as good at jumping as it is, but this freaky alien-chick leaps across the entire stage and straight into me. All four blades stick inside of me and I scream in pain, as they shear straight through my armor. I'm bleeding! I can feel me bleeding. Worse, the Beetle is bleeding and this thing whines like a baby when hurt.
"Uh, that … what did you just…" I can't seem to grasp what just happened. While still shocked, with this woman attached to me by her knives, she places her massive grasshopper-looking leg against my chest and pushes off, backflipping away and pulling all four of her knives out of my body in one fluid motion.
She lands with a graceful flourish, blue ichor and red blood dripping off her curved blades. I reach down to touch at my wounds, gasping quietly.
"Help!" I find myself screaming to the crowd. I don't know if I can handle this. I don't know if I am going to bleed to death, for that matter.
How sharp must that thing be to cut in like butter? Did she sharpen them to the atomic level or something crazy sci-fi like that? Because that slid right through me. This time, when she launches for me, I surrender to my co-pilot, trying to listen to the instincts it gives me.
I land on my back as she comes, and my feet both come up to mule-kick her in the face as she comes for me. The blow connects and sends her flying away from me, but she manages to swipe both her blades across me as she goes, cutting into my legs and causing a slow drip down the sides. I kip-up to a standing position to my surprise, and she comes for me again, shaking off the blow without concern. I threw a car two weeks ago, and my kicks didn't faze her. I'm kinda getting worried.
"Look, we can talk this out! You're an alien, I'm a freak, we can just – we can get a soda or something, and talk about it!" She doesn't say a word, and that's creeping me out. Then again, she has no mouth. This does make me wonder if she could actually get a soda with me, theoretically. How does she eat? I might ask her when she stops trying to kill me.
My arms create the familiar shield-halves, which I bring together in front of me just in time for her to launch forward and stab all four knives into it. I'm staring at the back of my shield with horror. The knives came right through, an inch away from my face. I take this as my only chance, though, and before she can rip out her knives, I expand the shield desperately to have it clamp onto my back as wings.
"Uh, hi!" I greet nervously when the shield parts to let me see her. This parting tears her stabbed knives straight out of her four hands and leaves her off-balance in front of me. I jump desperately upward, wings flapping to yank me away.
As I launch airborne, I kick her in the face again, sending her crumbling to the ground. I start flapping my wings to escape her vicious attacks… but she doesn't give up so easily. She leaps, as well, and her velocity sends her high enough to catch me as I fly. More specifically, her hands capture the hilts of her knives that are still sticking out of my wings. What the HELL is this woman's motivation!
I quickly realize just what's about to happen. "Ohno, ohno, ohno…" I start panicking and try to make any kind of desperate maneuver I can to get her to fall off, but she holds tight. In fact, one of her four hands grasps the upper side of one of my hard wings for support as she takes two knives and rips them free … then stabs them in again above my shoulder blades and tears downward.
She literally shears my wings off my body. The Beetle screams in my mind, a jumble of cryptic glyphs scrolling past my eyes in its cries of horror. I'm doing my own screaming, though, as I sail into the graduation field face-first. She rides me in like a wave, and as the grass and dirt flies upon my impact, she leaps free and turns to face me.
I shakily begin to stand up, ichor sloughing off the stumps of my Scarab's wings still connected to me, and blood dripping down my back from where she carved in. "What did I ever do to you?" I ask, absolutely terrified and taking one step back when she makes one step forward.
Just as she prepares another pounce, I see she freezes in place. I take the chance to start charging up my arm, though I don't exactly know how my body makes that decision. Rings start dropping down my arm and growing in size, energy pulsing along its length.
Her 'hair' twitches, as if she senses a change in the wind.
Only seconds later, a black bubble appears in an explosion of mist. This bubble seems to part, as if a bird's sheltering wings pulled back from its child, revealing a green guy, some kind of archer and a Goth chick in robes.
I recognize them as Beast Boy, … some archer chick … and Raven, of the Teen Titans.
"Duck!" I cry to them, who seem all a little shaken from the trip. The arm is already pulsing with power, formed into the familiar cannon, and I can't really stop it now. This isn't so much a me-in-control kind of deal.
Appropriately, Beast Boy, Raven and – idunno, Arrowette or something – leap out of the way and my arm releases its charge. I don't know what's worse. That I almost took out the Titans, or that this alien woman is actually able to out-maneuver a ball of lightning. The physics student in me stumbles at the concept, as she leaps sky-high the very second it creates a crater in the Earth where she stood.
"Titans, scatter!" I hear Beast Boy yell out to them. Give it multiple targets I guess.
"How did you get here? Do you have Risk's beacon?" he yells at me as they flank the alien chick, who stands stock-still as soon as she lands again, appraising her enemy just as we appraise her.
I'm a little in-the-heat-of-the-moment here, but I try to understand what he just asked. "Whowhatnow? I don't have anything! It attacked me! At my graduation!" I tell him, defensively. I'm a little used to superheroes attacking and threatening me these days.
"Then where is--" and as Raven asks this follow-up, she stops to close her eyes and expand her senses or something. I'm not quite sure what she's doing, but it looks significantly like meditating in the middle of battle.
"Give her cover. I'm the rabbit!" Beast Boy calls out informatively as he turns into a green-skinned tiger and launches straight for Xeno.
I feel more than a little out-classed here, and just sort of stand there as if I'm waiting to be told what to do. Because I am. I've never done this whole … super-fight thing, not counting when Green Lantern tried to pile-drive me. And I really didn't know what I was doing at the time.
The alien slices for Beast Boy, who manages to duck just under its range as he tries to run circles around her. "Little help here!" he calls out, and I think he's talking to his archer-girl. Arrowette?
It seems he is, anyway, when she knocks an arrow and sends it flying for the alien. "Screw you, Xeno," she mutters darkly.
The alien – Xeno? Is that its name? -- leaps backward and free of Beast Boy's claw-swipe, and easily free of the arrow. What scares me most is that mid-leap and for no good reason she catches the arrow in a pincer while it flies to where she just was. Landing with inhuman grace, she snaps the arrow in one hand and moves to stab its arrow-head into the outmaneuvered Beast Boy's right flank. He cries out primally, and Xeno tears it back out of him, making him cry again. Beast Boy leaps skyward and transforms into a hawk, to gain some added speed.
I see her aim a knife on him and prepare to hurl it. I can't do this anymore. "Hold on!" I call out to them supportively and launch myself into the way of Xeno just as she throws the knife for him. The result finds the super-sharpened knife slicing right into my shoulder. In the toughest moment of my life ever, I close the distance, ignoring the outpour of blood and punch her in the face, with a follow-up rushing to strike her in the stomach.
Xeno returns the strikes. Her other knife, having had only two from the four she started with, rushes for my chest and I catch her wrists with my hand. I hold it tight and crush her wrist with my hand. She doesn't scream, but I think if she had a mouth, she would. "Now! Shoot her now!" I scream out desperately as I hold her in place.
I see Arrowette knock her next arrow and let it fly. The thing soars across the distance and strikes directly at the base of her head. Xeno stops struggling, stumbles for a second in my grip and then collapses to the ground.
No blood or anything. How tough is this thing's skin? But it sure is out like a light. "It looked like a soft spot. Under the, uh, tendrils," Arrowette explains, while I stare. Beast Boy lands and returns to the human form, holding his bleeding side.
The world calms for a minute, even as every person I've ever known stares on in horror or has run for their lives. I try to ignore the fact we're in the middle of my destroyed life.
"I'm Beast Boy, this is Speedy, and she's—" Beast Boy tries to explain, looking for Raven. Fortunately, she seems to introduce herself a second later. Speedy points at my shoulder, and I look down at it. I wince at the sight of the knife still in it, and yank it out. I cry out again at the pain.
"ABOVE YOU," Raven cries out. We all look skyward as one, and so do any bystanders who stayed, to see the shadow-form of Raven above. I wish I were regal, like her. I just scream like a girl a lot whenever something bad happens, and shoot electricity at them.
Speedy looks around funny, as Beast Boy turns into a hawk again to soar skyward. "Hey, I can't fly either—" I start to try to kind of bridge that gap as the stumps on my back start to shudder. She looks at me, and I realize … the wing-things Xeno cut off are growing back, regenerating in the span of seconds to beat again once and floating me off the ground.
It occurs to me … my legs don't hurt and neither does my chest. I'm healed already? And so is the Beetle? "Or … I also can," I tell her with some surprise. I grab Xeno and throw her over my shoulder, and look to Speedy.
"Want to hold on?" I ask, and reluctantly she shrugs and clings to me. My massive wings start beating against the wind and I sail skyward, pointing my free hand skyward in my best Superman pose. It feels a little regal.
"It bars entry," Raven explains to us the second we arrive, floating in the air before them with a steady stroking beat of my two massive wings. Beast Boy is perched on the top of the ship.
I fly closer, just to look at it, and we're all looking around as if we need some kind of plan. They all keep looking at Raven. "I tried," she says.
"It bars entry, I said. I can't – get inside of it."
If I wasn't flying, or if I didn't have a full body encasing of this beetle carapace, I might not feel as stupid scratching my head. Seeing as both those things are variables, however, I admit to feeling pretty stupid when I do it.
"Why'd you bring her?" Speedy asks, finally.
"I don't know. In case she wakes up. Her name is Xeno?"
"No," Speedy tells me. "I just – I got tired of calling her 'the alien'. Xeno means 'alien', so..."
A longer silence. They all start looking at me as if I know. I guess they all know each other's powers and are hoping for some miracle. "I don't have a clue what I'm doing, don't look at—" My words, however, are cut off when the ship suddenly erupts into flight. Engines lighting up and it begins accelerating.
Instinct takes over and I fly straight at the ship and cling onto it. The ship responds… it speaks. --Biometrics positive. Opening hatch.--
True to its word, the ship slows – but doesn't stop – and opens the hatch door to allow us in. I pull Speedy in with me, and both Raven and Beast Boy rush inside after us. We land in some kind of cargo bay, and the door seals behind us.
--Initiating warp protocols,-- it calls out matter-of-factly. That does not sound good.
"We need to find Risk, now," Beast Boy takes control of the situation quickly and Speedy detaches from me with an awkward smile and rushes off, Raven using her power in a soft glow over her form before she points her hand.
"He is down that corridor."
The ship starts to shake, and blur. We all understand the importance of the moment and Beast Boy lopes down the hall in the form of a Cheetah while I race after on-foot at my incredible speeds. Row after row of walls are packed, top to bottom, with what are obviously aliens. Dangerous, obscure looking beings. I don't know what to say. Do I tell them we need to help them all? But where would we take them – Earth? I don't know. I'd tell the Green Lanterns, but I'm thinking No in my case. Neither of us, however, beat Raven who appears directly before us in an eruption of shadow.
I don't pause, as we see Risk sitting behind an electrical field. I reach out and touch it. I scream for only one second before the power suddenly channels through me, the horns of my armor arcing as they contain the power. The draining takes only a few seconds before the entire place's fields shut down, releasing untold scores of aliens.
Raven only has enough time to sweep us up in a cloak of shadow, and release us from it … before the ship becomes a blur of motion and makes just one Blip as it disappears into the horizon.
We re-appear in the sky. It takes a second before gravity realizes we're there and we start to plummet. Raven soars free, Beast Boy becomes a bird again – leaving me to pick up the slack. I soar after the falling forms of Speedy and of Risk, to snatch them in my arms and lower us all safely to the fields below.
I made sure to aim for somewhere far away from the graduation field. I think I might just … not go back there for a little while.
"Thanks," Speedy breathes, but Risk is still a little too unconscious to answer.
Beast Boy lands, followed by Raven, and we're left with the adrenaline of moments ago. 'Thanks," is the first thing Beast Boy manages, before he realizes something. "Where's Xeno?"
"I had to set her down to do the power-thing to get Risk out, and then we just … poof. I guess … she's still on her ship…" I swear at myself for that. I let the bad guy escape. My first super-fight and I let the bad guy get away.
Raven starts to breathe, trying to concentrate her will and her power for another jump from here to San Francisco, I guess. I think that's where the Titans stay. I can see she's hurting from all the power she's used tonight.
"Hey, look," Beast Boy begins, as he walks out of their little circle over to see me. I look up curiously, and he continues. "…you look a little … lost and – I saw you kinda got exposed back there, and I just … I wanted to let you know. If you wanted somewhere to belong, we'd be happy to have you in San Francisco sometime."
He extends his hand. "I didn't catch your name," he tells me.
It takes me a long moment. I have to realize my entire life just disappeared, and the very fabric of what made up my reality has been drastically changed. That I am forever This to anyone I've ever known. I take his hand. "It's … Jaime. I'd like that."
"Gar." He steps back and smiles.
They're gone in a mist of black.
Just like life as I knew it.
END
What does Jaime do post-graduation – and has he really joined the Teen Titans? So uh … what happens now?
All this (maybe!) and more when we catch up to continuity, struggling with both family who are less than happy with their son the hero … and with those weird eyeless freaks!
See you next month, post-OYL, and remember, to those about to rock: We salute you.
-Bowie
Note from the Author: This is the last of the pre-OYL events, just the first three weeks of post-Crisis. The next issue covers some gaps, but leaves most of it to 52. From here out? Post-OYL. Additionally, I should mention that being last-named "Sessions", I despise people with low-alphabet names for their alphanumeric superiority when it comes to organized events. I should change my name. I'm going to be "Bowie Aaron" now. Or "Aardvark". Can we do things in Reverse Alphabetical Order just once? Jerks.
