El Paso
May 14, 23:40 MDT
!Gore Warning!
Black Beetle powered up his thrusters and soared toward Bria at high speed.
Adjusting your Scarab's nanotech to compensate for her enhanced strength, the Scientist said to Black through his Scarab.
Bria noticed that Black's armor shimmered momentarily before he closed the distance between them. She smirked and readied herself, putting her left foot slightly behind her right foot to strengthen her stance.
Black growled as he slashed his pincer-sword out from his body, a motion that would have been a backhand if he was swinging his fist. The sword met her ribs, cutting through her black silk blouse and cutting into her skin, even if only superficially.
"You son of a bitch!" Bria snarked. "That was a $300 blouse! I see you learned a little something from last time."
Increasing blade sharpness at the atomic level, the Scientist said.
"It's been awhile since I've found a challenge," Black taunted Bria. His blade shimmered for a moment before he got ready to swing it again. "Too bad you won't be getting a cheap shot this time!" He brought his blade down in an overhanded motion.
Bria vaporized into mist before the blow landed, moving quickly behind him and reforming.
"Guess you haven't fought too many vampires before," Bria taunted. "We're full of cheap tricks." Bria swung her fist and hit Black Beetle between the shoulder blades. He stumbled forward slightly but quickly caught himself and turned to face her.
"My Scarab's adjusted for your strength," Black said with a smirk on his face. "It's a shame really, I was hoping for a real fight." He swung he blade at her again, but she again vaporized and dodged, reforming a few feet away from him.
Analyzing the chemical makeup of the cloud she becomes, the Scientist said. It appears to be mostly water, a super-heated attack from your plasma cannon should cause a steam explosion and do serious damage.
"Nice to know I can take the kid gloves off," Bria said with her own smirk. Her eyes began to glow, turning from their traditional blood red to a crimson red.
I'm seeing energy readings course through her body, the Scientist cautioned. Proceed cautiously.
Bria pushed off the ground and came barreling for Black Beetle. He raised his blade to catch her midair, but again she vaporized before impact. His blade quickly transformed into his plasma cannon and fired into the air, through her mist-self. When the heat of the plasma hit her mist, it caused a small but loud explosion.
Bria let out an unearthly scream as she was scattered for a few moments before reforming on the sidewalk. She was kneeling and hunched over, her left side extremely injured from the blast. The left side of her head was burnt away down to the bone, which also sported a burnt black coloration. Anything made of flesh was gone, and her exposed skull showed her vampire fang. Her torso was also charred and exposed her rib cage and her left arm was gone, burnt away down to the shoulder joint. Her left leg sported blackened and cracked skin but was still mostly intact. Smoke rose from her body and she pushed off the ground with her right hand to stagger to a standing position.
"Gratitude for not ending the battle too soon," Black said, and his plasma cannon retracted back to reform into his hand. "Surviving fourth degree burns is impressive."
Bria turned to face him, giving him a death glare, made creepier with only one glowing red eye and the other an empty eye socket set into her skull. Her heart beat once, sending out a quick flash of red light. Her burnt edges of flesh became a healthy pink again. Veins, tendons, sinew, and muscles spread from her skin, covering her exposed bones. As they stretched out, her internal organs were also growing back, still unused from millennia of being dead, but still looking new and pristine. Her shoulder let out a sickening cracking sound and bone began to sprout from the joint, growing her left arm from nothing. Her eye growing back, starting as a simple red point of light, until she was able to glare at Black Beetle adequately. Once she was completely reformed, her shadow stretched over her and repaired her clothing.
"Your clothing also regenerates?" Black questioned.
"I've been caught one too many times with my pants down," Bria shrugged. "Both literally and figuratively, a simple enchantment fixed that."
She is a distraction! The Scientist scolded. Leave her and find the ones invading Blue Beetle's mind!
"As fun as this has been," Black started, "I came here on a mission." He raised his right hand and formed his sonic cannon, firing rings of purple energy that came with a loud whirring noise.
Bria vaporized into mist, knowing a sonic attack couldn't hurt her in this form.
Black quickly switched to his plasma cannon and fired, but Bria was ready this time. The mist reformed, but instead of Bria's human form, she came back as a swarm of bats. With her new form, both much smaller than she normally was and nimble fliers, she was able to dodge the blast with ease. She closed the distance between them and swarmed him, lifting him off his feet and into the air. She carried him to the nearby desert, only in flight for a few seconds, but away from the moving truck and any bystanders. While midair, she became her human self again and clocked him with her left-hand square in the jaw.
Black was sent hurtling toward the ground, but his Scarab ignited his jetpack to prevent him from hitting the ground. Bria landed in front of him, roughly five feet away.
"You see Black," Bria said with sass. "I am also here on a mission. But I'm fine with putting that on hold while I kick your ass." Bria rolled her neck and shoulders, loosening herself up. "Care to see who is actually stronger? No tricks or gimmicks?" She entered a fighting stance and raised her fists like a boxer.
"Gladly," Black growled and entered a similar stance.
Jaime's Mind
May 14, 23:40 MDT
When the white light faded, Tim, Gavin, and Bart found themselves on the shore of some beach.
"Where are we now?" Gavin asked.
Bart looked around and saw that it was raining ash from the sky. The sky was just a blanket of dark grey clouds as far as the eye could see. He turned around and saw the ruins of Mount Justice, the same spot where he built the time machine to stop all of this from happening.
"We're in the future," Bart choked out, the waves quietly lapping against the sand behind them.
"Correct meat!" A voice said from above them.
They all looked up and saw Blue Beetle hovering in the air. Except it wasn't the Blue Beetle that Tim or Gavin knew, it was the one from the future. He resembled Black Beetle more than anyone else, besides the color difference, but Bart knew it was Jaime, at least the future version of Jaime.
"Time to end this pointless mission," Blue said to them. "This is inevitable." He gestured to the landscape around them.
"Yeah," Gavin said with a smirk, "I don't think so. Veni fructum bellator!" Gavin's eyes went black as his shadow stretched out behind him. A guttural cry came from within his shadow, like an injured creature forced to face an enemy. A black gauntleted hand reached up through his shadow and grabbed at the sand for a hold, then a second hand followed. Slowly an armored knight of pure shadow stepped out of Gavin's shadow. The knight let out an anguished cry and leapt into the air at Blue Beetle. Gavin's knees buckled and he began to fall, but Bart used his speed to catch him. "We have to find an exit from this memory before one of them declares a winner," Gavin said through painful breaths.
Bart helped Gavin walk as Tim led them into the ruins of Mount Justice. The sound of metal clashing against metal sounded behind them as future Blue Beetle and Gavin's shadow knight slammed into each other.
"What is that thing?" Bart asked as he supported most of Gavin's weight. His arm was under Gavin's left arm, wrapped around his back, and supporting him under the other arm. Gavin had his left arm around slung over Bart's shoulders.
"I'll tell you later," Gavin strained. It was then that Bart realized that Gavin had a tear rolling down his cheek.
"I think I found something!" Tim called from ahead of them.
Bart and Gavin joined him and saw the time machine that Bart used to get to the past sitting in the middle of the ruined field.
"Crash!" Bart exclaimed. "That's my time machine!"
"Then let's get it fired up," Gavin said.
The group of them moved toward the time machine, with the sound of battle growing more muffled behind them. Bart helped Gavin sit down on a nearby boulder sticking out of the ground and moved over to the time machine. He looked it over.
"Everything good?" Tim asked, coming up beside him to look.
"Yeah, its crash," Bart said with his hand up to his chin, lost in thought.
"What is it?" Tim asked and looked at Bart.
"Setting this thing to a very specific time was tricky enough as it was before," Bart pondered. "I don't know if I can set it to a specific time again without help."
"Bart…" A male voice came over the wind.
"Jaime?" Bart responded, maybe a little more wishfully than he should have been in front of Tim and Gavin.
"Help me…" Jaime's voice said again on the wind.
Bart looked back down at the time machine's control panel, his eyes stinging with tears. He had to figure this out for Jaime. He closed his eyes tight and conjured up his memories of Neutron helping him before. He blinked his eyes open and wiped the tears from them before kneeling in front of the control panel and getting to work.
"You remember how to do this, right?" Tim asked and watched Bart work.
"It doesn't matter if I remember or not," Bart said through gritted teeth. "Blue needs me to do this, so I'll do this." Bart's hands worked furiously at the control panel, twisting knobs, connecting wires, and setting levels to what he hoped would be the correct time.
"I think we need to hurry," Gavin strained. "My warrior is losing his fight." The sounds of battle were not only growing fainter from the distance, but also the gap between hits was growing longer.
"We're crash!" Bart said with certainty before standing up. "But, uh, this thing only seats one person."
"This is a dream!" Gavin shouted. "Just open the door and we'll all climb in."
Bart opened the door to the time machine while Tim helped Gavin walk over to it. The three of them climbed inside of it, which was surprisingly a very tight fit. They were packed in like sardines.
"Dream huh?" Tim sassed.
"I don't make the rules!" Gavin sassed back.
"Get off my foot!" Bart yelled.
The time machine sprung to life and the three of them were sent hurtling into a white light.
New York City
May 15, 02:12 EDT
The door opened to the Scientist's lab and the Ambassador came storming in.
"What is it now?!" The Ambassador growled. He looked up at the screens and saw Black Beetle battling Bria through Black Beetle's eyes. He also saw the mental readings from Blue Beetle.
"Black Beetle is distracted with his fight with Bria Reynolds," the Scientist reported. "While the people reading Blue Beetle's mind are left unchecked."
"People?" The Ambassador questioned.
"That is correct," the Scientist said and pushed a few buttons on the console. The screen changed to show pictures of Tim (in his Robin gear), Gavin, and Bart (in his Impulse gear) next to the scans from Jaime. "The Scarab was able to lock down which people are in Blue Beetle's mind based on brainwaves. While he works to slow them down, they have proven to be elusive." She chose her words carefully. "I suggest sending Green Beetle to prevent the mind reading."
"I guess that would be wise," the Ambassador groaned. "Fine, send Green Beetle to find the intruders. Do we know what they've learned so far?"
"Negative," the Scientist answered. "While we control the host's mind, we don't have visual imaging of their thoughts and dreams. They seem to be around the hippocampus and amygdala, so they are attempting to access a memory. But I am unsure as to which memory."
"I guess the surest action would be to eliminate them," the Ambassador mused. "Have Green Beetle do that when he arrives. Can we not wake Blue Beetle up?"
"Negative," the Scientist said. "It appears the sorcery of Gavin Cethin is keeping him asleep."
"Then let's remove him from play," the Ambassador said. "It was nice having him heal Blue Beetle, but there are other ways to do that. Now I have an interview in the morning, so I am off to rest. Make sure this is taken care of."
"Of course," the Scientist bowed slightly as he left the lab.
El Paso Desert
May 15, 00:36 MDT
!Gore Warning!
Bria stepped back and out of the way of Black Beetle's right hook. He left himself open with his overextension and she seized the moment, letting loose three quick jabs in rapid succession directly into his right ribs.
Black Beetle groaned as the hits of another superpowered individual bruised him. He knew that his armor could take most of the punishment, but he'd be feeling it tomorrow. He readied himself again and swung his left arm in an uppercut.
Bria used her footwork to slide back just in time and dodge the uppercut. She grabbed onto Black's wrist, spun around on her heels, and threw him over her shoulder. Black landed on his back and she immediately fell to the ground, still holding onto his left arm. She maintained a death grip with both hands on his left wrist and threw both her legs over Black's chest, keeping a leg on either side of his left arm, and dug her heels into his right shoulder, forcing it to the ground. She leaned back and applied pressure to the arm bar she successfully set up in Black Beetle.
"Ahh!" Black Beetle screamed as he was unable to relieve the pressure to his shoulder, no matter how much he fought against Bria.
"I thought your armor compensated for my strength!" Bria taunted as she put more pressure onto her hold. There was a sickening cracking sound as Black Beetle's shoulder popped out of joint.
"AHH!" Black Beetle screamed louder as his shoulder dislocated. His armor shifted and produced a plasma cannon on the chest, right under Bria's legs. The cannon fired its purple beam of energy up into the sky.
Bria screamed and let go of Black Beetle. She rolled away from him and looked down at her legs. The pants were burned away, and her skin was black, charred, and flaking away from 3rd degree burns. She willed more of her stored blood to course through her system, healing her legs and her shadow repairing her pants. She stood up and faced Black Beetle, who was also standing up, but holding his left arm with his right arm.
"I thought we weren't using any tricks?" Bria seethed at him.
"Apologies," Black Beetle replied through gritted teeth. He moved his right hand to grab onto his left shoulder and pushed up and in, causing another harsh popping sound as he put his shoulder back into place. "My Scarab wanted to make sure I kept my arm." He flexed the fingers on his left and winced a little at the pain. "That was an interesting maneuver."
"An arm bar," Bria smirked as she answered him. "A technique as old as the pankration. No one has been able to get out of that move fairly ever since I learned it, at least not through brute force." Bria saw some movement in the sky. It was small from this distance, but it was unmistakably Green Beetle flying over the desert toward Jaime's house. Shit, she thought to herself. Now I've got to try and distract two of these motherfuckers.
"Shall we go again?" Black Beetle asked and readied himself into another boxer's stance.
"How about some tricks this time?" Bria goaded him with her question. "See who is quicker on the draw?" Bria used her index finger's nail to cut a line into the palm of her right hand. A small line of blood came trickling out into her hand.
"Whatever you say, meat," Black Beetle responded, and his right hand transformed into his plasma cannon.
As Black's hand was transforming, Bria flung her right arm up towards Black's face. The blood flew across the small distance between them and landed on Black's visor. The blood sizzled as it began eating through the protective armor and sent a stream of smoke into the air.
"Ahh!" Black Beetle cried as he raised his plasma cannon blindly toward Bria and fired.
Bria was already moving toward Black, and before his cannon had fired, she was behind him and pushed his elbow up to aim the cannon at Green Beetle. The purple beam of energy fired up through the air and hit Green Beetle before he could even react. Green Beetle came crashing to the ground with a solid thud. Bria then grabbed Black by the armor protrusions above his shoulders, picked him up, and threw him toward Green Beetle.
Black's Scarab repaired his visor and activated his jetpack before Black hit the ground, causing him to hover about a foot off the ground.
"Didn't think I'd let Green there pass us by, did you?" Bria taunted as both Beetles stood to face her.
"This is not my mission brother," Green Beetle said in his monotone voice.
"Another mission?" Bria feigned ignorance. "You Beetles sure are busy tonight. Too bad I'm looking for a fight tonight, otherwise we could just go our separate ways." Bria surged toward the two Beetles, both of which changed both of their arms to their pincer-swords and raised them in defense. Bria met their blades with her hands, grabbing onto Black with her left hand and Green with her right hand, but she could only grab one sword each, which left the other sword free and her defenses wide open.
Green Beetle attempted to pull out of her grip to finish his mission, but she held on tightly, causing some dents to appear in the metal armor.
Black Beetle took the opportunity to attack her. He impaled her through the chest with his free sword, causing Bria to cough up blood, but she didn't let go. He pulled his sword free, hearing the sickening sound of ribs breaking as he did. Her wound closing as he pulled his arm up for another slash. This time, he removed her left leg at the knee, bones cracking and flesh tearing away. As her lower leg fell to the ground, it disintegrated into dust and a new leg began growing itself.
Bria could feel the strain on her regeneration powers, she was going to need to feed soon. She had to keep these two locked down until Gavin's spell was done, Damn all this magic. Leave it to mages to turn something simple into an all-night production.
Jaime's Mind
May 15, 01:04 MDT
!Gore Warning!
With a flash of white light, the time machine appeared outside of STAR Labs, unfortunately, it appeared about five feet above the ground. It came crashing down to the ground with a loud clang! All the boys inside the time machine groaned as it hit the ground. Tim reached for the door latch and pulled it open. Tim and Gavin came spilling out of the time machine, Tim hitting the ground face first and Gavin falling on top of him.
"Well that was totally moded," Bart said as he pulled himself from the seat in the time machine.
"Says the person who got to sit the whole way," Gavin replied as he pulled himself off of Tim and stood up. He reached a hand down and helped Tim to his feet.
"As far as anyone else is concerned," Tim said as he brushed the dirt off his uniform, "that never happened."
"Sounds good to me," Gavin agreed.
Bart looked around, they were definitely outside STAR Labs, the sun was shining, but it was still coming over the horizon. Birds were singing and the sky was a shade of pink hear the mountains.
"You gotta help me!" Jaime said in the distance.
"Blue," Bart gasped. He looked off in the direction of Jaime's voice and saw Jaime, fully encased in the Blue Beetle armor talking to Green Beetle.
Tim grabbed Bart's shoulder to get his attention. When Bart made eye contact, Tim brought his index finger up to his lips in a shushing motion. The three of them made their way over to the two Beetles talking, making sure to keep the bushes between them.
"Are you sure you want me to try this?" Green Beetle asked in his signature monotone voice.
"I'll try anything to keep this Scarab from taking control!" Jaime replied desperately.
"Then turn around and I will begin the procedure," Green instructed.
Jaime turned around and Green put his hands up to Jaime's Scarab. Green's fingers elongated and merged with the Blue Scarab. The group watched as the image of Jaime split, with Jaime on the left and the Scarab on the right. The Scarab grew in size, eventually becoming the suit of armor while Jaime's image faded until he was translucent and nearly invisible. The images merged back together, and Green removed his fingers off of Blue's Scarab.
A white flash of light enveloped the area again and the boys found themselves back on the Reach ship, in the lab were Jaime was brought to initially.
Bart looked around and saw Jaime in one of the pods along the wall. He made his way over to Jaime at superspeed, leaving Tim and Gavin momentarily confused, until they saw where he was going. Tim made his way over to the computer console at the center of the room and Gavin watched the door leading to the hall.
"Jaime," Bart said to the sleeping body of Jaime in the pod. He placed his right hand on the red tinted glass.
"Bart?" Jaime replied sleepily. Jaime's eyes blinked open and looked around not finding anything to focus on until he saw Bart. A rush of adrenaline shot through Jaime and he was energized. His eyes shot open and he placed both his hands on the red glass. "Bart! Help me get out of here!"
Bart felt his heart skip a beat and his breath caught in his throat. He looked down at the control panel for the pod, but nothing made sense to him. He never opened one of these before. Bart reached down for the large red button and pushed it. Nothing happened. Bart pushed a few other buttons on the pod, but they made no sound and didn't trigger anything.
"This is so not crash!" Bart shouted in frustration. "Cover your face!" Bart put his hand on the glass and began to vibrate his hand at superspeed, hoping to shatter it, but after a minute, nothing happened.
"I don't think that's going to work," Tim called to Bart. "According to this, the Scarab is back on mode and has complete control over Jaime's body. I can even see the type of signal it is transmitting to the Reach."
"I knew something wasn't right!" Bart said to Jaime, tears beginning to well up in his eyes.
"Bart, thanks for noticing," Jaime said through the glass, his eyes also stinging with tears. "Remember what Bria said, she was there when the Beetle was cleansed last time. You need to talk to her!"
"I'm not leaving you here!" Bart spat back. "It's my mission to stop the Reach from putting you back on mode and I failed!"
"Hermano," Jaime started. Bart didn't realize how much he missed hearing Jaime call him that. "Like I said before, you have your family and friends to help you. The fact that you know I'm trapped here is way better than before."
There was a sudden bang on the metal door to the lab.
"I think it's time to go!" Gavin shouted to Bart and Tim.
"I promise to get you out of here!" Bart cried, placing his hand back on the glass.
"I don't doubt it, ese," Jaime said and placed his hand opposite of Bart's. He gave Bart a warm smile.
"Sit finis magicae," Gavin spoke, and the room began to darken.
The banging on the metal door became distant and Jaime began to fade from view. Bart felt like he's been dunked in ice water again, but this time when he opened his eyes, he was in the back of the moving truck with Gavin and Tim. His cheeks were wet with tears, which he quickly wiped away as he saw Gavin and Tim come to.
"Where's Bria?" Gavin looked around. The deep shadows under his eyes were telling of his fatigue from using a lot of magic.
Tim lifted his left arm and opened his holographic computer. He input the signal data he saw from the Reach ship and a little image of a satellite dish appeared and began moving in a circle.
"I'm detecting three different Reach signals right now," Tim said. "One is Blue," he pointed to the map on his image, "the other two are nearby in the desert," he pointed to the other two signals.
"That's probably where Bria is," Gavin sighed and rolled his eyes.
"It looks like Blue is moving now," Tim said. "Time to get out of here."
"Redi ad nos, et Bria Wayne Manerium," Gavin spoke, his eyes completely black again. The shadows in the truck grew darker, completely blocking out all vision.
Wayne Manor, Gotham
May 15, 03:20 EDT
!Gore Warning!
When light started to creep back into view, the boys found themselves sitting at the dining room table at Wayne Manor. Gavin swayed forward but managed to keep his head from hitting the table.
"It's about damn time!" Bria exclaimed. The boys all turned to see her standing near them, by the table. Her right hand was missing, blood pouring from the wound onto the hardwood floor, and her face, neck, and chest were blackened, smoking, and flaking from third degree burns.
"Did you have a good time at least?" Gavin asked with a smirk.
"Some of the best violence I've had in a while," Bria admitted. The stump where her hand should be let out a cracking noise and bone and flesh began to grow back. Her skin and clothing returning to normal across her burned portions as she spoke.
"That's not crash," Bart said while turning pale.
"Next time I get to go on a violent mission though," Bria said while flexing her newly grown hand. "I don't want a keep away mission, I'd like to be able to move around and just hurt things to my heart's content. Got any blood around here?"
"I don't think so," Tim answered after a moment of stunned silence.
"Hunting is better anyway," Bria said and spun on her heels toward the front of the manor. "I'll see you all shortly. I worked up an appetite." With that, Bria walked out of the manor and into Gotham.
"Let's tell Nightwing what we learned!" Bart said with renewed vigor.
"He's on his own mission right now," Tim reminded Bart. "Once he comes back, we'll tell him that Jaime is under Reach control."
"Darn it!" Bart blurted out and lightly hit himself on the head. "Jaime told me to talk to Bria about some sort of cleansing ritual. Maybe I can still catch her."
"I wouldn't," Gavin warned. "She's hungry right now and you don't want to see her feed when she's hungry. She'll be back soon, so we can get the details from her then." Gavin pinched the bridge of his nose.
"Let's just take the time to rest and build up some strength again," Tim said as Alfred walked into the dining room.
"Everything go well Master Drake?" Alfred asked and spotted the pool of blood on the floor.
"Yeah Alfred," Tim answered and followed Alfred's eyes to the pool of blood. "I'll clean that up if you could get Gavin some Tylenol?"
"Certainly, Master Drake," Alfred said and moved into the kitchen. Tim got up and followed Alfred, leaving Gavin and Bart alone at the table.
"Everything good Bart?" Gavin asked as he saw the worry come across Bart's face.
"No, everything is not good," Bart grumbled and put his elbows on the table and his head in his hands. "Jaime is on mode and we couldn't crash it in there."
"At least we know he's on mode now," Gavin consoled him. "Now we can take the proper steps forward to fix it."
"But he's still trapped in there while we figure out a solution," Bart didn't like how whiny he sounded, but he was trying his best to keep his emotions reigned in. He could feel his chest hurting and his eyes stinging.
"I'm not going to tell you not to worry," Gavin said and made sure to make eye contact with Bart. "People worry for the ones they care about, that's natural." Bart blushed slightly. "But normal people don't have superpowers. Normal people don't travel through time to save people. Normal people don't have friends with magic, or alien tech, or super detectives. You have a lot more help than a normal person and we are going to make sure you succeed on your mission and Jaime gets out of this in one piece."
Bart smiled at Gavin, he really needed to hear that right now. He wiped his eyes again and took a deep breath. He may not have been able to save Jaime right now, but he had plenty of people to help him do so.
Latin Translations
Veni fructum bellator- Come forth warrior
Sit finis magicae- Let the magic end
Redi ad nos, et Bria Wayne Manerium- Return us and Bria to Wayne Manor