The Flight of the Blue Beetle 12
Probe had sniffed out two other Meta-humans, both of them with incredible strength, but the last one was different. It was thick and dark, and she wasn't talking about the hidden underground level of the youth center. She had pointed to the door before Francisco melted it. Behind it, a ragged figure sat.
"Wha-what time is it?" a tired voice no longer used to talking asked.
"Ehm, close to five," Mickey said.
"Leave me here, I will find my way out after," said the ragged pale figure.
"What are you talking about?" Probe asked. She was not the kind to leave others behind.
"I am talking about you don't want to mess with me," he bared his fangs at them as his eyes glowed red.
"Gah! Vampire!" Miguel jumped back before making a cross sign.
"He is not, he must be-" Probe started.
"I am," the young man said.
"Damn," Francisco said as they stepped back.
"So what? Are you going to sparkle if you go out?" Mickey tried to say with a laugh though he was as worried as the rest.
"If you mean I will turn into a burning corpse, yes," he said with a sneer, "now go and let me be."
"I say we do what he says and go," Miguel said almost white pale.
"Meet us here if you want afterward," Probe said writing down the Posse's address. The vampire gave her a curious look before leaning against a wall and closing his eyes.
When they were finally at distance, they split up. Probe gave Kid Flash and some of the others the location of the trapped Metas. Kid Flash and the twins left right away in case Asami and Tye needed help. Miguel, Francisco, and a boy who called himself Anvil (for he refused to give his real name) followed close behind in a vehicle provided by the Posse.
Probe took Mickey and a boy named Hector Morales to join Paco, Piñata, and Scour to where they were preparing to attack La Dama's mansion. As soon as Damper got word they were in their way Damper took Thumper to protect Bonita and Esteban in case they came across trouble.
When Miguel, Francisco, and Anvil finally caught up to the speedsters and Asami they were ready to execute the next part of the plan. However, Tye didn't make his move and they started to worry.
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Tye had made up his mind that he was going to beat Jaime up and then make him eat dirt. He really hated the situation his friends had dragged him into. If things were going according to plan he would have already gone all giant on the place and broke the sealing apart, but the moment he tried to use his powers something shock in ankle. He lifted the end of his pants to see a silver band wrapped around it.
"It blocks most of our powers," Gabriel said.
After the curiosity of the rest for the new kid had passed away they all had gone back to what they were doing before, all for exception of Gabriel. The telepath hoped to get some news of his beloved, though Tye didn't seem the friendliest of guys around.
"Great, now how am I supposed to break that ceiling," Tye said looking up with a sneer, "dammit it all."
"We must not lose faith. You said others were coming. We have to believe in them," Gabriel said with a kind, hopeful smile.
Tye was ready to say something to wipe the grin off his face but then was distracted by someone's shout. He turned to see a semi-visible figure cross a wall.
"Ahh!"
"Hey there," Kid Flash said before appearing before them.
"Kid Flash!" Tye said shocked. He had no idea the speedster could do something like that.
"Kid Flash?" others echoed.
"No way?" someone said.
"Is the Justice League coming?"
"What's the delay?" Kid Flash asked.
"This," Tye showed him the metal band.
"Everyone else has them too?" he asked with a small frown.
"Yes," Tye said before Gabriel showed him his.
"No problem, give me a few minutes," he said before taking hold of their bands before vibrating them into little pieces, "help the rest get theirs off. Everyone has to be able to defend themselves."
Tye started to remove other's bands now that he had his inhuman strength back. He watched that Gabriel's eyes shone as he too helped to bed others with just glaring at them.
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"Gabriel!" Miguel said as a ghostly figure appeared before them.
"You really are here," Gabriel said with a smile.
"What's going on? Where are Kid Flash and Tye?" Asami asked.
"They are helping remove these bands that block our powers. We are almost finished with one of the bunkers," Gabriel told them.
"We can't wait anymore," Asami said with a frown.
"Then let's get a move on," Anvil, one of the new kids they had picked at the youth center said.
"Better yet," Gabriel said, "you should free the big guns."
"What do you mean by big guns?" Asami said worried.
"There are these four kids who are extremely powerful. La Dama has them in a deep sleep because even the bracelets can't block their powers. I have been able to communicate with some of them. Believe me; they would do anything to ruin La Dama's plans." Gabriel said with a determined smile.
"Then what are we waiting for? Let's free them!" Miguel had said before they followed the floating entity.
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Back inside the bunkers Gabriel told Tye and Kid Flash what the rest were going to do.
"Are they really that powerful?" Kid Flash asked a little worried.
"They are, but don't fret friend. They are also some of the nicest souls I have ever met," Gabriel said as they finished the last of the bands in their bunker.
"Everyone here get ready to flee when we get the gates open," Kid Flash called to the rest before going through another wall to free the rest of the Meta-humans in the other bunkers.
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Asami stared at the two boys and girl in what seemed a restless sleep. They had broken to an underground bunker, beat the Coyote's and blocked the entrance to keep more from entering as they tried to wake up the rest. She wasn't feeling so sure about this anymore. Some of them looked very dangerous.
"Trust them," Gabriel said before he pointed to a panel.
Miguel believed Gabriel entirely so he went to the control panel and started to press with he was told until the four pods started letting out steam and then they opened.
"Chto (what)?" a tall blond stepped out. "Gde ya (where am I)?" and then his fist were covered in a strange kind of fire which heat the small space immediately.
"You are among friends Red Star," Gabriel said to the teen who starting to panic.
"You are freeing us?" he asked with wide eyes. He never thought someone would free them before La Dama brainwashed them into becoming her puppets.
"Or they want us for themselves" another one of the teens stepped out of his pod. This boy immediately surrounded himself with a chilling atmosphere. His eyes were white, his skin is as blue as a clear sky and his hair the blue of the sea. He was wearing only pants which made it clear the rest of him was just as blue.
"Shut it Frostbite," said a feminine voice as she walked out with a long golden mane following her, "name is Dorcas Leigh, but you can call me Godiva. Thank you for freeing us."
Godiva was a beautiful woman and with her long flowing her, which seemed to have a mind of its own, she was just unmatchable.
"We are not free just jet," said another girl walking out of her pod. Her skin was the texture of black polished rock and her long her floated like a cloud around her, "not until we take care of La Dama."
"Couldn't have said it better Kiran," Red Star said before smirking, "let those Coyote's in."
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Bart had finished the last band in the second bunker before he heard an explosion.
"Just how strong are those guys?" Bart asked the boy he had freed.
"They are scary," the boy said watching the doors with wide eyes.
"Tye is about to break us out from our bunker," Gabriel reported to him, "then we will move to this one while you free the rest."
"Got it," Kid Flash said though it had not the original plan. He was supposed to take the other Metas to a safe place as fast as he could, but he had to give them a fighting chance if things came to the worst. He moved on to the last bunker and started working on their bands as fast as he could.
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Outside Asami tried not to get too distracted by the power display of the four big guns. Red Star tackled Coyote after Coyote engulfing them in the fire before moving to the next. All the while his eyes shone yellow like the sun and his face remained serious. Frostbite was the complete opposite. He laughed as he punched and kicked the Coyote's with immense strength. Where he hit, it turned flesh, bone, and fur into ice. Godiva was impossible to miss as her long golden tendrils wrapped around limbs and throats before squeezing until they broke. When cornered her magnificent curls would lift her off the earth like the wings of an angel. Nonetheless, she looked incredibly bored with the whole matter but didn't complain or stop.
Now there was a girl by the name of Kiran, or as her friends called her; Solstice. She was the most powerful of all. She shot rays of light that evaporated whoever dared approach her. The more she used them, the more it seemed the same light wanted to break through her skin. Her eyes shone blue as she flew around them shooting any enemy that came into her sight.
Tye was as magnificent as she remembered. He lifted the Coyotes with his construct's immense hands and squished them to dust. He kicked a few sending them over the mountain and stomping on others when they were too close to hurting someone. He was like an immense shield that looked after them as they gave a good fight. Though many thought of him as a rash person, she saw his true nature. He was a protector.
Asami concentrated on her adversary before punching it and then blew it away with one of her blasts crashing it into others.
"Watch out!" she heard Miguel call out to her. There was a pack ready to launch at her and tear her to bits. They were too many to handle with an ordinary blast. She formed a tornado under herself levitating herself and capturing the Coyote inside it.
She swallowed hard before expanding the tornado below her and then created each one on her arms. This was something she knew she could do, but never dared to before. She captured the Coyotes in her tornadoes before slamming them to the ground effectively breaking their bones and damaging their insides.
"More are coming!" she shouted when she spotted a pack rushing towards them. She cursed under her breath. They were running out of time.
"Leave them to me corazón (heart)," Miguel shouted as he ran full speed towards the wall of claws and fangs.
They watched as a great wall wrapped around the Coyotes from all sides until they were wrapped in a dome.
"Damn," Miguel cursed feeling the pressure the beast fought with.
"Keep them still!" Anvil shouted as he gave a great leap which would have made Superman proud before slamming his fists on Miguel's structure effectively squashing the Coyote's and also blowing Miguel back.
"Watch it!" he shouted as he undid his construct, "that actually hurts."
"Don't! There still some moving!" Francisco had shouted before instinct took over. Before he had just blowing the beasts away and knocking others over in fear that he might hurt his companions. Now, as he watched the creatures crawl towards them with murder writer in their eyes he knew he could not shy away from what he could do. He slammed his fist into the ground, without meaning to bury them wrist deep. Though he was shocked at his own strength, he didn't stop. He sent wave after wave continuously breaking the earth apart.
Anvil and Miguel both jumped back when they saw what was going on. The ground around the surviving Coyotes started to shake uncontrollably until they could no longer stand before collapsing under them and sending them crashing into a deep hole where they were killed by the debris.
"That was awesome," Anvil said placing a hand on the shoulder of the still shocked Francisco.
Francisco could only nod not knowing what to say before they resumed the fight with the remaining Coyotes.
Meanwhile, David and Daniel pulled people out of the bunker as fast as they could and took them to the place they were instructed. They started with the children and elderly. The twins talked among themselves in worry and astonishment. They had never tested how fast they could go together because they had feared being found out. But now, they found themselves wanting to go even faster. Before they realized it they were done with the first bunker and started on the next one before they were joined by Kid Flash.
"They are almost done," Kid Flash said more to himself that his companion speedsters. Things were going better than they thought. They had been worried that Miguel and Francisco would be too scared to fight alongside them, but they were proving themselves very reliable. At top of that, the meeting of the young African American teen by the nickname of Anvil had been a blessing. The boy had such strength that he could bet he could par almost equally with Superboy.
He wasn't so sure about the four 'big guns', as the twins referred to following their elders example. Red Star was a bit too violent. Frostbite enjoyed fighting a tad too much. Godiva didn't seem to care much for it. Solstice (thought with good reason) seemed to act purely out of anger and very little of thought.
While these thoughts ran through his mind they finished the remaining Coyotes and freeing everyone from the bunkers. There was a total of sixty-four Metahumans from Texas and other parts of the world. The place where they evacuated them too was an old reservation well out of the city where Tye's grandfather had a strong word. The people of the reservation were shocked at first but when they spotted children and other youth they knew they were doing the right thing. They led them to tents and tables to rest and eat to help them recuperate from the shock. Their saviors regrouped here as well for the following part was much more dangerous.
Sufficient to say, the adrenaline was still running high in their young bodies and those who had been fighting before wasted no time on joining the next one.
Whenever Kid Flash retold this part of Jaime's plan, he made sure to be clear this was the one of the last few good things that happened. Soon after things turned to a darker light where Jaime and the rest were at; La Dama was not as powerful as she was without being cautious. She knew something was going one when she sensed her summons be destroyed in large numbers. She abandoned the party in the manner of a lady before having her driver take her back home at all speed. She could collect the Metas again but could not risk losing Brenda. She sent for two of her best; Bone Crusher and Brutale. Whoever was fool enough to try to mess with her at her own home wouldn't know what hit them.
It was as her limo parked outside that she said the ongoing fight in her yard. There were some members of the Posse she knew well; Piñata, Probe, Scour and to her surprise the boy that she thought dead Paco along with other two Metas she didn't recognize. One was getting her guards guns and melted them while the other tackled them like a bloody bull.
The gates of her home were demolished thanks to Piñata, who had gone ahead and destroyed also most of the front of her home. Scour, a large man who sweated acid threw her men around like rag dolls giving them a few burns in the way. Probe, with her superior sensorial abilities, was able to dodge anything that came her way by using her knowledge of the human body to disable men twice her size. Paco, oh she would make sure he stayed dead this time; he swung a metal bat beating the hell out of anyone who dared to approach him. Though he was not a meta, he was not ordinary in his own way.
Later on La Dama would learn from him that all those years he spent hidden was not done fearing her, but preparing his body to give a real fight. Even if it meant his actual death in the end. He swung the bat as hard as his toned muscles allowed him to, which was skull breaking hard. She watched with a smile as Bone Crusher and Brutale finally arrived jumping off the ceiling to surprise them.
"Up!" shouted Probe sensing them a second before they landed among them. It was enough of a warning to jump back.
"They are mine!" shouted Piñata before taking hold of Brutale, "didn't someone tell you the Scarecrow already beat you in that look!" the wild youth shouted preparing to explode.
"Hasn't anyone told you that you speak too much?" the man said before piercing her stomach with a knife.
Piñata screamed losing her concentration and falling back holding the wound on her stomach.
"Bastard," she sneered before closing her eyes, blocking the pain, and then exploded before Brutale could hurt her again.
"You hurt my friend!" Scour roared as he launched towards Brutale. The hired assassin threw over twenty knives from his belts to the man but even though they hit target the man kept going.
He was almost upon him, but Bone Breaker took that moment to take down the giant man. He attached himself to Scour's back before wrapping his arm around his thick throat. Scour gasped for air, but it was for naught. Brutale kept the rest back as Bone Crusher suffocated Scour until he lost consciousness. He would have preferred to kill him, but the man's acidic sweat had almost eaten through his suit.
Probe, Paco, and Mickey prepared themselves to fight them now that they didn't have to fend off La Dama's guards. The moment they had seen those two arrive they had fled in panic. These men didn't leave witnesses even if they were on their side.
Paco calculated they just had to hold them off for a minute, by then Piñata would be ready to go boom again.
"It won't be that easy," La Dama said finally stepping in. She held one of Piñata's flesh; she threw it to the ground and then using an intricately carved knife she stabbed the piece of flesh. The rest which had been gathering to reform the girl stopped in their tracks.
"Maybe not," someone said before they looked up to see the Blue Beetle come out of her office's window, "but easy or not, you are going down lady."
"Blue Beetle," she said with a sneer. She had known he was in the city but never expected him to be on her trail. "You have no right attacking my home."
"And you have no right taking people from their homes to form an army or dealings drugs in the streets, or threatening small businesses if they don't laundry your money. Should I keep going?"
"You have no proof, and whatever you took from my office is now invalid. She invaded my home," she was not a fool; to be as big as she was one had to know how to use the law in their favor.
"But it will raise questions. Your own business will be examined, and those we saved from you will be more than happy to clarify after you locked them up," he reasoned before her haughty expression turned furious.
She could sense he had another card under his sleeve and she bet Damper and the rest of the Posse were involved with it.
"Kill them," she ordered her assassins though they were severely outnumbered.
Bone Breaker jumped towards Probe and Paco ready to break their necks while Brutale threw countless knives towards Mickey knowing well physical contact with the infernal boy was not an option. Jaime blasted Bone Breaker and Brutale's knives with one blast of his sonic cannon.
"You are out of your league," he told them with a cold tone, "surrender yourselves now."
"Don't think so highly of yourself, tin can" La Dame said before her eyes started shining with a strange light, "rise my servants!"
Jaime and the rest watched in horror as Bone Breaker and Brutale started convulsing. Then, their bodies began growing abnormally until their clothing ripped apart and the monsters they were inside all along were revealed.
Bone Crusher's masked head was replaced with the half flesh covered head of what seemed some type of reptilian. It had eyes void of light and a forking tongue escaping its broad snout. Its body became a dark mass of muscles covered with spikes made out of bloody bone.
Brutale's body became bladed limbs with frightening sharpness and length. Its mouth was filled with overgrown bladed teeth and his eyes were a bloody red.
"Wow, that is scary," Kid Flash said appearing beside the rest and holding the same intricately carved knife. Piñata reconstructed her body, but the fight went on.
Paco hit Bone Breaker as hard as he could with his bat but it barely flinched before slamming its fist his way. Kid Flash took him out of harm's way before any real damage could be done by punching the creature as fast as he could before it tried to swing a fist at him. When he jumped back, he realized the being had not even flinched.
Probe was able to dodge Brutale's bladed limbs barely as Mickey threw overheated material at the being, but to no effect. Jaime threw an attack their way whenever he could, but he also had to hold back La Dama's attacks. She threw blasts of energy their way which he could barely hold back using his energy shields. As the attacks were magical Khaji-Da had trouble tuning the shields to their power signature.
Jaime heard from Kid Flash that the rest were coming, but were still a way away. He hoped they got there soon because even though they were not actually losing, but they weren't winning either.
"Stop!" they heard a shout, "I said stop or I will kill myself!"
And that caught their attention. La Dama ordered her servants to stop as everyone turned to stare at a tearing Brenda holding a knife to her own neck.