-Where are we going?- Jaime asked.

"Into the desert."

-So you're not going to do my homework?-

"Your homework is a low tactical priority. The Impulse will most likely gather a force to attack us. We must make ourselves difficult to find." The Scarab tossed his communicator onto the ground and crushed it with one armoured heel. "Or would you prefer a full-scale fight in the proximity of your family?"

-Wait, why would Bart gather a force to attack us?-

The Scarab, showing a mastery of human body language that surprised Jaime, rolled his eyes. "Have you forgotten the information he imparted during our encounter with the Reach?"

Ah. Bart thought the Scarab was going to turn on humanity and create the horrible future he'd come back to prevent.

Was the Scarab going to turn on humanity and create the horrible future that Bart had come back to prevent?

No. No, that was impossible. Because Jaime had the armour now. If it came down to it, if Jaime wasn't able to cajole or distract the Scarab and it came down to an all-out, drawn-out fight for the armour... he'd win. He'd have to. Too much was at stake for him to lose to that crazy thing.

He hoped he could win.

-We could, you know, not fight.-

The Scarab hissed quietly in frustration. "We cannot allow ourselves to be captured."

-The Team are our allies.-

"If they come to apprehend us in the desert, then they are not."

-So, what? We're just going to run?-

"No. Ideally, evasion would be the best tactic given our current circumstances, but we never verified that the device with which the Aqualad tracked us was destroyed. If the Nightwing still possesses it, running is futile. We retreat into the desert to increase their search time if they cannot track us, and we use the time to create a defensible situation."

-Defensible? How?-

"I assume you will not tolerate hostages."

-No!-

"Then we must be strategic about this. We must dig."

The Scarab took them far out into the desert and had Jaime scan for large rocks and rocky mountains. Eventually, they found stone with the characteristics they wanted, and started to dig. They'd barely begun when Jaime detected something. -Incoming. We have something large and organic... the bioship, I think.. from the West. A couple of flying humanoids from the East. I think they're attempting to surround us.- He quickly calculated their speed and firepower. -I recommend we flee. Chances of successful evasion: 44%.-

"Not good enough." The Scarab pulled out the plasma cannon. Adrenalin spike, heart rate increase, within safe parameters.

-We don't want to hurt these people.-

"That was their decision."

Jaime tracked the various minor physiological changes in the Scarab. It wasn't the same as the previous alarm responses. Something was different about it. Something strange. Not dangerous, though, so probably not important. -If we retreat and wait for this situation to resolve itself...-

"They could've waited for that." He was angry! That was it. The Scarab was angry. That couldn't be a good thing.

Wonder Girl and M'Gann approached from their left. The Bioship hovered a little farther away on the right, in camoflage mode, but Jaime could see it fine. He played the relevant scanning information across the Scarab's visor.

"Blue!" M'Gann called, coming closer and raising her hands. Jaime's scans pulled up her weakness to fire, and he stopped himself from converting the Scarab's weapon accordingly. "We don't want to hurt you."

The Scarab shot her. The beam knocked her out of the sky, although she'd be fine. In a bit.

"Hey!" Wonder Girl charged. The Scarab dodged left, then right in response to Jaime's report about the Bioship's weapons powering up. He shot her in the gut and she fell, winded.

-We cannot continue this indefinitely,- Jaime pointed out.

"Then we disable them to prevent pursuit," the Scarab said, turning his weapon on the Bioship as he flitted about, trying to make himself a difficult target. Jaime felt the now-familiar tingle of the Scarab trying to increase the power of the gun. He didn't allow it. "We don't have time for these struggles," the Scarab said testily.

-Recommended tactic: surrender and minimise risk.-

"Not an option."

-You risk injuring both of us, as well as our allies.-

"We heal. So do they. If we allow ourselves to be captured, we have no guarantee that we will survive the encounter."

-Of course we'll survive!-

"Why would we? Their job is to eliminate threats to this planet. Right now, that could include us. If the Impulse has shared his concerns..."

-They're not going to kill us!-

"Then our attack is of minimal risk and there is no need to surrender." The Scarab cut a wound down the side of the Bioship, who immediately shrank back but didn't stop firing. Jaime could feel the Scarab's heart thundering, feel the complex interplay of hormones and nervous signals forming the emotions that Jaime himself could no longer feel, feel the trace amounts of endorphins released in response to the Scarab's minor injuries...

There was one way...

-I'm sorry. I can't allow this.- Jaime used his own systems to draw adrenalin out of the Scarab's blood and inject his own drug cocktail.

"What are you..."

-You might want to descend.-

"You didn't!" But the Scarab didn't waste time arguing; he started to descend. Slowly. By the time he blacked out and Jaime lost all contact with the outside world, they were barely a few feet off the ground.

They woke in cuffs.

Jaime ran a quick diagnostic – armoured up, but he was unable to make any changes to the armour, including bringing weapons online. Basic scanning and monitoring capabilities were normal, but anything that required the manufacture of new hardware was offline. There was a weight around their neck, something electronic. Inhibitor collar. The Scarab's physiological signs were within safe parameters. He was unhurt, beyond some rather painful bruises. His hands were shackled to each other, as were his feet. The cuffs were beyond his strength to break (strength was at normal human level) but would be easily removed if he could create the right tools. He was locked in a small, unfurnished room. The door was an old-fashioned non-electronic one. The lock mechanism wasn't visible from the inside. Deadbolt? There was a security camera planted high in one corner.

"Jaime..."

-I'm not hacking the collar.-

"If you disable it then we can make our escape."

-No.-

"Did you render us unconscious?"

-Yes.-

"Why?"

Jaime thought about how best to explain that to somebody like the Scarab. -You were irrational and unnecessarily escalating the fight. I had to put a stop to it.-

"By getting us captured?"

-There was no way to avoid capture. I minimised injuries on both sides of the conflict.-

"This is the second time that concern for your allies has gotten us captured. I am not certain that they are such the advantage you make them out to be. While we stay here, we remain in danger."

Trying to argue for the trustworthiness of his friends again would be pointless. -If they were going to kill us, they would've done so already.-

"Because you rendered us unable to fight back."

-I never thought I'd say this, but you're even more annoying this way than usual.-

"Now that I can experience annoyance, I can say that the feeling is mutual."

Locks started to open on the other side of the door. Jaime scanned for life signs. One human. He recognised the movements; Nightwing. He opened the door carefully. One hand near his belt, Jaime noticed.

"Are you okay?" he asked.

"Vital signs are stable," the Scarab answered, somewhat testily. "Are you going to let us go?"

"Can't." Noghtwing crouched down next to him in what most humans would probably assume to be a casual manner. Jaime noticed that his physiological systems were all in combat mode, and he balanced on the balls of his feet in a way that made them easy to spring from. "What happened to Bart?"

"You have seen the Impulse more recently than we have. He told your allies of our predicament."

"No he didn't. I did."

"But you agreed -"

"To keep you secret if you stayed here, which you refused to do. I had to tell them because Bart ran into you and immediately went offline. Where is he?"

-He's missing?!- Jaime felt for the electronic collar around his neck. He tasted the programming, felt around its twists and folds. Found vulnerable, vital parts. -Scarab, we have to find him. He's probably doing something really stupid. I have accessed the vital functions of this collar but it would be preferable to harness the cooperation of the Team.-

"They can't – " the Scarab muttered.

-Our goals are identical.-

The Scarab looked back to Nightwing. "The Impulse recognised the problem immediately and fled. He is probably doing something stupid and dangerous. We must find him immediately."

"'We?' No. You're staying here. The rest of the Team will handle Impulse."

"You do not trust us."

"I trust Jaime. I don't trust you. Stay put and we'll figure this thing out later."

That sounded like his cue. Jaime shorted the collar and tore open his shackles. The Scarab rolled to his feet, but didn't draw a weapon as Nightwing sprang back through the door. He started to close it; the Scarab assembled a sonic cannon and used a narrow, high-power beam to destroy the door hinges. "We are going to track down the Impulse," the Scarab said firmly. "Our efforts will be more effective if they are combined."

-You're getting a lot better at this,- Jaime noted, impressed.

"As are you," the Scarab whispered back.

Nightwing glanced from the ruined door to Blue Beetle, who was disassembling the cannon and casually tearing the inhibitor collar off with his free hand. "Alright. Fine. Briefing room in five minutes."

They armoured down before attending the briefing. It wasn't a big group. Cassie chatted with Karen in one corner. Conner looked over Nightwing's shoulder as he analysed some maps. Jaime detected everyone's heart rate increase slightly as he entered the room. Everyone but Nightwing shot the Scarab wary looks.

"Alright," Nightwing said before anybody could comment, "Let's get to work. Impulse ditched his communicator in El Paso, so we can't be completely certain of his location. We're going to have to use... cruder methods."

"What, are we lookin' for eyewitness reports of little red blurs from the future zooming past?" Karen asked doubtfully.

"No. Weather patterns."

"Huh?"

"Anyone moving at that speed for that amount of time creates some serious air pressure disturbance. He would've thrown off the weather patterns. Now, predicting weather isn't 100%, so some of this is speculative, but we might get an idea of where he's likely to be..." Nightwing pulled up a map on the big screen. "He's either in Alaska, or Happy Harbour. Probably."

"Why would he go back to Happy Harbour?" Cassie asked. "The Cave is a crater. There's nothing there."

"No less likely than Alaska," Karen shrugged.

"He arrived in Happy Harbour," Conner said. "That's where he got stuck in the past. Maybe it's a... a time travel thing?"

Nightwing nodded. "Superboy, Blue Beetle, you're alpha squad. Take the SuperCycle and get to Happy Harbour. Bumblebee, Wonder Girl, you're beta. Take the Bioship and check the area in Alaska. It doesn't seem to be near anything but maybe he was going for somewhere isolated."

The journey with Conner was awkwardly silent for about ten minutes. Then, Conner said, "So."

The Scarab didn't respond.

"So you're the Scarab, huh?"

"Correct."

"How does... how does that work, exactly?"

"Uncertain. I do not have full access to my diagnostics systems and my host does not have the knowledge to utilise them properly, make this exact nature of the problem difficult to determine." He shrugged. "It's magic."

"Magic, huh?"

-Oh look, you're mastering casual conversation. See? This isn't so hard. Just get through the whole thing without threatening to kill him and you'll be fine.- Jaime found himself monitoring Conner's vitals, estimating his strength and calculating the most efficient wavelength of light to blast him with should a fight ensue. He was pretty sure he could depower him without permanently hurting him. If he could get him out of sunlight. Otherwise things would get tricky.

"Look," Conner said, "I've heard Jaime talk to you. You know, before. And..." he sighed. "You know my past, right?"

"You are a half-human, half-Kryptonian Cadmus clone created to challenge Superman should your creators ever need to do so."

"Yeah. That. Well, they taught me stuff. Telepathically. When I first woke up I..." he shook his head. "Look, my point is, being thrown into this world and expected to act... human... isn't easy. Especially when everything you know and have been taught to expect is... off. Everyone's a bit frightened of you, but don't take that personally, okay? The first thing I did was attack the people who came to help me. ut they accepted me quickly enough."

The Scarab was silent for a few seconds. "Thanks you," he eventually said, in an unreadable tone.

"Is Jaime, well, awake in there?"

"He is aware. He is monitoring my physiological systems and scanning the surrounding environment." At that moment, Happy Harbour came into clear view. The Scarab lifted one arm for Jaime to build equipment and scan.

-Recent disturbance under the ruins of the Cave,- Jaime reported, displaying the relevant information on a hastily constructed viewscreen.

"The Cave has been disturbed," the Scarab told Conner, leaping over the side of the SuperCycle and flying himself gently to the ground. They kept scanning. Strange heat signatures, new rock fractures. Then... nothing? A patch of bare rock. It was oddly smooth, but it was hard to be sure if that meant anything at the site of a major explosion. Jaime switched to X-ray scanning.

-There is a chamber down there. It looks empty, but the walls are too smooth for a natural cave. Can't see much else with so much obstruction.-

Jaime did the relevant scans on rock stress and type and provided an appropriate gun for the Scarab to start digging. Within about a minute they'd tunnelled into the chamber and flew down. Conner leapt down after them.

"What is this?" Conner asked.

"Uncertain. It was not on any Cave schematics."

There was a small passage on one side of the chamber. Conner followed it while the Scarab and Jaime inspected the chamber more thoroughly.

-Given the size and the fact that it's empty, I'm guessing... garage?-

"Scan for residue of petroleum and other hydrocarbon fuels," the Scarab suggested.

-You think future-boy used a gas vehicle?-

"Anything more sophisticated would've given off energy reading that the Cave security systems would have detected. Unless you think this bunker is new."

-Good point.- Jaime scanned. -Yeah, there was definitely a petrol engine in here.-

"It leads to the ocean," Conner called from down the passage. "Actually, now that you've breached the roof we're getting a flooding problem."

-A boat?-

"At this depth, a submarine." The Scarab put away one armoured glove, crouched down and rubbed a finger against the ground. "But it was started on dry ground. The Team does not have a vehicle like this."

-Nope. Bart had a secret ground-moving submarine. Huh. Why?-

"And why now?"

Conner appeared at the end of the passageway. "We might want to move before this thing floods."

"He will be impossible to track in an unknown vehicle in water," the Scarab said. "We have lost this trail. If we could predict..." He froze.

"What?" Conner asked. "What is it."

-You're remembering what he told us about the future, aren't you? Only one place he could be going. He thinks he failed with me and he's trying to complete his mission. This is really bad.-

The Scarab took the armour off and met Conner's eyes. "He's gone to tackle the Reach. Alone."