The Flight of the Blue Beetle 5
He was and never intended to hang out with them. He was happy to be an outsider even more when he started his extracurricular activities after school. He wouldn't even fit with them if he wanted to. They were the Preps, Jocks, Scenesters and Mean Girls. They had a mutual understanding that people like him and they would never get along, yet there they were. It was Friday after school in what would be known as the best pool party of the year. Though it was quite a sight to see a few of those girls walk and swim around with the skimpiest bathing suits he had ever seen he still felt out of place.
There were plenty of snacks and drinks to go about with as little adult supervision they could get from Brenda's aunt. He was thankful his friend was able to keep only one guard after bantering a little with her aunt. On the other side of the pool he spotted Brenda talking with Asami. She seemed to be the only girl she could get along with in her own improvised pool party.
"Don't be such a wuss and take it off Reyes" Joey Gonzales said pushing him, almost making him fall into the water.
Jaime clutched the ends of his shirt and stood to the side and out of the jock's reach. He hoped Black Canary would never learn that someone like Joey Gonzales took him by surprise.
"That sounds so creepy coming from you" Tye said behind them before pushing Joey into the pool.
Jaime was sure Tye hated the guy when he turned the fall into a dive which got him a few whistles from the girls around.
"Well, this is a pool party" he emerged from water and tried to grab Tye's foot but his friend jumped back.
"No, this was just us and then you invited yourself and then your friends" Tye said with a glare.
"She didn't say no, who could ever say no to me?" he said flexing his guns.
"And it keeps getting creepier" Tye said before pulling Jaime away under a foyer, "you know if they saw that mark on your back they would probably think is a tattoo"
Jaime touched the hem of his shirt. The scarab when hidden only left the blue mark of a beetle on his spine. It could easily pass for a tattoo but he remembered Batman's words; vary your pattern and stay within your cover. And right now he was Jaime Reyes who was supposed to be shy and sort of awkward, or so Tye keeps telling him. Then again he didn't want to bring attention to himself by being too careful. This whole undercover investigation was more complicated than he thought.
They watched everyone move about before he asked his accomplice, "Have you seen her?" by her they meant Aunt Ampara, aka La Dama.
"She is watching from the window" Tye said with a tilt of his head.
Jaime knew better than to turn around. He already had a general idea from where and that was pretty good. Maybe having Joey and his friends around was a good thing after all.
"Can you create a distraction?" he asked his friend who watched the crowd with mischievous eyes.
"With pleasure" and then got to work.
He snuck until he was near the door to the mansion. He sat on one of the pool chairs and watched as his friend start the show. He wanted to make sure the goon watching the door was distracted before he went in. It would do no good if La Dama learnt he had gone into her home unsupervised.
"Watch it!" Tye said pushing Joey back after a small brush of shoulders.
"What are you-" the other teen looked at him as if he had gone mad.
"Just because your dad is a cop you can't push me around! Everyone knows he is crooked as hell and-" and Tye knew Joey's dad always looked into blaming his people to cover his 'sponsors'.
"Shut your fu-" Joey knew this of course, but it would do no good for his friends to know.
Jaime flinched when he saw Tye punch Joey across the jaw. The other teen stared at him shocked realizing that even though Tye was not as burly as him, he was probably faster. Jaime watched and waited for the guard to try stopping them so he could move. It was interesting how he was able to break down all the mistakes Joey made. He assumed too much about his opponent, which led him to receive a few well placed hits. Since he returned home Tye swore he would never let anyone take him away against his will.
As the party started to gather around them he noticed the guard call on his radio before he moved to split them apart.
"You need your little friends to help you Joey?" Tye said with smirk before the rest of Joey's friends advanced towards him.
"There better be an explanation behind this," Asami said in her native language before standing next to her boyfriend leaving a shocked Brenda watching on her own.
"Very, but even if there wasn't I had waited for an excuse to kick his sorry ass for too long" his smirk told her this was true.
"You just know how to show a girl a good time, don't you?" but she smiled nonetheless.
Even though he wanted to see his friends wipe the floor with them Jaime knew he had to move.
"Disrupting cameras signals" Khaji-Da said overlapping the images the surveillance system was recording.
The mansion of La Dama, just like the pool was magnificent. Everything was either an antique or of the most expensive brand. The carpets alone made him feel as if he shouldn't step on them. The hairs on the back of his neck stood up when he wondered how many horrible acts against humanity La Dama had committed to get them. Something probably as bad as what she would try to do to his family if she found out what he was doing.
"Remember what the Batman told you Jaime Reyes" Khaji-Da said when he stopped as if frozen.
He took a deep breath to rein in his emotions. Whatever she had done, the people she had already hurt couldn't be undone, but they could bring them justice and hopefully closure.
After setting a few bugs in the living room he went up the stairs, disrupting the cameras as he went. The scarab would alert him anytime there was someone close and made him hide on empty rooms or corners until they were done. Jaime wondered how the bats did it without having something like his scarab. He reached the top floor where he knew Las Dama's office was. He snuck up past the guards who were watching the brawl through a window. He was surprised Tye and Asama were still going strong at it.
"Fifty on the blond kid" one of them said. Jaime couldn't help rolling his eyes.
He reached the main hall. It was decorated with a beautiful crimson carpet and two doors on the sides and one at the end of the hall which Khaji-Da confirmed to his was where La Dama and her non-rational energy gathered.
His hands shook as he pulled one of the bugs Batman had provided him with. Even if they found them, they were untraceable. He placed them behind paintings, under tables, in places he had been taught people never checked. He heard steps approaching and took without thinking to the room on the left. Khaji-Da had confirmed it was indeed empty but didn't have time to say more before Jaime was already in.
He wished it hadn't for the room would feed many of his future nightmares. He wondered if Brenda knew what lay below the roof where she slept. The woman was a real witch. Not in the sense that she stood around a cauldron chanting and whatnot but it was close. All along the walls there were shelves with things. He called them things because he had no idea what they were.
"Non-rational energy levels are low but unpredictability demands we leave Jaime Reyes"
"Believe me, I really want to leave but I am sure this is the best place to plant a bug" he approached one of the shelves.
A severed hand clawing at its crystal jar prison, what looked to be like some sort of fetus of a creature he had ever seen, a dried up fairy giving an eternal shriek, some roots and herbs that actually moved, a cloud of something in a jar which seemed to be looking at him, some liquids he didn't bother reading the label for he suspected it was blood (he wondered whose), and many unnamable things that made him wonder if La Dama had something against men. He wanted to cross his legs from just giving them one glance.
"Readings show those don't carry non-rational energy" Khaji-Da said.
"So she just collects them, that makes it so much better" he hoped at least the men were already dead when she took them.
"Someone is about to enter Jaime Reyes, hurry" Khaji-Da said before he planted the remaining bugs around the shelves in the room as fast as he could.
"Jaime?" he thought his heart was going to pop out when he heard Brenda, "what are you doing here?"
"I… I wanted to talk to your aunt, but I think I picked the wrong door" he hoped he looked shocked and even a bit scare so she believed he had no idea he was going to find this room.
"Oh," she said before biting her lip a little "is just a hobby; she likes to collect odd things"
"Some of those things are alive," he turned to watch the moving cloud, "Brenda, are you okay?"
"Of course I am," she said lifting her chin, "she is my aunt"
"I know, I know…" he tried to calm down. He had to keep his cover.
"Jaime, I know you" she said stepping forwards, "and I also know my aunt. She is a little eccentric but she keeps that part of her to this room so the world won't judge her. I would really appreciate it if you told no one about this place. We all have right to secrets, don't you think?"
"Yeah, fine" and then she led him out and back down the stairs.
He found maybe half of the party in the large living room as the goons was setting up some sort of machine by the TV. He spotted his friends sitting in a couch on their own while the rest crowded on the other. Tye had a self pleased smile as Joey and his bruised friends glared at them. She gave him a light punch on the shoulder before going to stand with her aunt.
"Don't you think you went too far?" he asked as he sat with his friends.
"Maybe," he said but the smile didn't go away.
Jaime sighed, "so what did I miss?"
"We kicked their butts," Tye said.
Asami added "and then one of the guards got punched so more had to be brought in. They split us apart and Miss Amparo made us come inside. Some people left since they considered the party over"
"And what are we doing now?" he didn't like the looks of that machine.
"Is non-threatening" Khaji-Da assured him.
"You are going to hate it," Tye snickered before handing Jaime a small piece of paper, "that's your turn"
"My turn?" he opened and found the number two written on it.
"Miss Amparo has a very interesting sense of humor when it comes to punishments" Tye showing Jaime his, which had the number fourteen.
"She didn't say it was a punishment" Asami said showing her had number five. Whatever it was, she didn't look pretty happy.
"For us it's going to be" Tye said before Jaime noticed his friend was blushing slightly, "I just hope enough people quit before it get to me so I can quit too"
"Alright jovenes (youngsters), we are setting the machine at random, and you only get one chance to skip the song in case you don't like it" La Dama said before she brought a fishbowl filled with papers, "we are not going in number order" she said taking a paper out of the bowl and showing it to them, "first goes number five" when they realized what was going on a few sighed in relief while others fretted. There was no way to know when it would be your turn.
Jaime was still at loss until he saw someone hand Asami a microphone, the screen went on and music started to play. Asami sang with a smile which explained why she didn't see it as a punishment. A few of Joey's friends tried to boo her but they only got elbowed or punched by one of the girls. They actually respected someone who could sing. Also, they dreaded they would try the same when it came to their turn.
"We are so dead," Tye didn't bother whispering the words as he looked at his number.
"This is a social ritual, why is Tye Longshadow dreading it?" Khaji-Da asked.
Jaime was surprised the artificial intelligence was actually curious.
"It is not curiosity but precaution. The machine is of simple making, or is there something I am not detecting" he scanned it again but couldn't find any threat.
"It is a social ritual," Jaime started, "and is very embarrassing if you are not used to singing"
"You are used to singing yet you are almost as nervous as Tye Longshadow"
"Is very different when you sing in the shower or when you are in your own than in front of others that might be judging you"
"It is irrational to sing in places where no one can hear you"
"Touché"
When Asami finished them, the girls and some of Joey's friends clapped. Joey remained with his arms crossed.
"Next is…" La Dama made a show of mixing the pieces of papers before pulling one out "eleven"
One of the guys sighed before stepping up and receiving the microphone from a happy Asami.
The next ones were not as good as Asami who clapped for each one of them. Jaime joined her and even convinced Tye also when he realized she was trying to keep them from being embarrassed.
"Being embarrassed can mess with your voice when you sing" she said as more and more of Joey's friends returned smiles to her even though she had kicked their butts but an hour ago.
"Six!" La Dama said before Brenda started blushing and stepped forwards.
"Go Brenda!" shouted Tye, "go chorus girl!"
Jaime offered her a smile when she looked their way. He had almost forgotten she had been in the choir when they attended catechism. She sang and everyone became quiet. She still had a beautiful voice. Her eyes met his many times and he thought she was trying to something that song wasn't. Everyone clapped when she finished, her cheeks reddened even more before La Dama started digging for the next number, there were only a few left"
"Fourteen!" she called before Tye cursed under his breath.
"You get my turn," he said to his friend as he stood up. He couldn't stand waiting anymore so decided to get it over with.
"Oh please let it be the chicken dance," he heard Joey say before Brenda handed him the microphone.
"Good luck" she said before he turned to face the rest. His gut clenched at once.
"Is irrational to fear those among your age group Jaime Reyes. You have faced more difficult situations than this"
He felt a little better and listened to the music. A slow rhythm, kind of familiar. Was that one of the songs his mother listened to in the radio? Then he remembered the song, it was in Spanish. He tried not to flinch as his Spanish pronunciation was terrible.