trans_9 | Altercations Are Inevitable

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Altercations Are Inevitable

The city was enormous, as they could see when they left the tube and entered the level it was on. It was enormous and cobbled together, seemingly. So many different buildings, temples, cathedrals, a massive tree, a labyrinth, so many different things. And overhead, a sort-of blue sky that wasn't a sky, and a light that could've been the sun if you squinted, projected there.

This ship wasn't just a ship, it was a COLONY, apparently. With a whole city inside.

"Un-Fucking-Believable."

This was where the other pod-people supposedly were, in this city.

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Are we done shooting? Oh good.

The Doctor glared around, but mostly at the people who'd been doing the shooting. And, unluckily for Harper, he'd been elected to take the brunt of the Time Lord's anger. "This is why we DON'T SHOOT PEOPLE! Because they turn out to be HARMLESS CHILDREN!"

"HARMLESS? You call that thing HARMLESS?"

Yeah, okay.

Cybil lowered her gun, though she didn't reholster it just yet.

"First of all, he's not a thing. Nobody here is. Second, calm the fuck down and be quiet while we sort this out."

Vincent was not a stable individual. Like his mother, the price he payed for his magic was nearly uncontrollable passions and impulses. Normally his intellect was able to temper them.

Normally he wasn't on an unexplored bio-mechanical entity who-knows-where in space.

Normally he wasn't denied his armor and forced into contact with individuals he didn't know from across multiple universes. With one of them apparently making herself de-facto leader.

He'd had enough, and was about to vent his frustration. He aimed a spell at Hudson and released it. Bands of force manifested, pinning his arms to his sides. "WOULD YOU SHUT UP, YOU GUN-TOTING IMBECILE?"

The Doctor was next. "And being a child does NOT make someone harmless, I think we can all agree on that. But in THIS case, it more than stands to reason that if this were a hostile intruder, the vessel would have alerted us, or supressed it." The second part was directed towards everyone.

He cleared his throat, still wild-eyed. "Now, will there be any FURTHER spontaneous outbursts, or need I take preventive measures?"

Kate straightened herself up and checked to make sure Paco was all right, "Most of us are heroes, right? Be nice to start acting like it, and Vincent calm down, you made your point."

She then glanced toward the one in the blue armor.

"Just take it easy, and tell us who you are, please. Nobody wants to hurt you. Right?" Sharp look at Hudson.

"WHAT THE FUCK?! WHAT THE FUCK IS THIS?"

Cybil grabbed Hudson by his collar, yanked him close to her face, and said in a tone of voice that communicated quite clearly what she would do to his balls if he didn't listen:

He was bound already, so she simply shoved him down on his butt.

Meep.

Hudson sat there. Quiet. Finally. Staring at Jaime in horror, as if waiting for him to spring forward and bite his face off.

He may have been gibbering slightly to himself, but it was quiet gibbering.

All the chaotic and trigger-happy--this from the guy who shot a holographic Rommie earlier--'festivities' were starting to wear on Sam and all the panicked screaming, coupled with the gunfire, was starting to give him a headache. Sucking in a deep-breath, he counted counted to five in his head before stepping toward the police officer who had been assigned as their 'captain.'

"I think somebody 'requires a mild sedative,'" he said--sarcastically quoting the needle-happy Stacy--to Cybil, casting pointed looks down at Hudson and then across at Vincent.

"I'm not counting that out, but need to deal with our other new friend first."

Which was why her gun was still out, just not pointed at Jaime.

"You have a lot to explain, but I apologize for everyone firing at you. We're all spooked," she said to Jaime. She jerked her head towards Hudson. "And this yahoo didn't help any with his panicking. So start talking. Who are you? What are you? And why did you attack Will--that one you had better have a damn good explanation for."

The Doctor gave Vincent a look that was half incredulous and half dismissive. "Of course they aren't, never said they were. Now shut up so we can listen to what the boy says."

"Thank you."

Seriously, people, he would like to explain things to you.

"I'm a superhero--the Blue Beetle. My name is Jaime. This is Paco." Jaime was pronounced "Hy-meh." Paco was pronounced...Paco.

He wasn't telling them his last name. He still didn't know what was going on and he didn't want to be free and easy with the secret ID. Too many already knew it.

"I'm human. Perfectly normal human. Paco and I are from Texas. The techie suit of armor is from my scarab--he's an alien parasite--or was a parasite anyway, but now he's more like a symbiote kinda thingy. An artifact I found at a construction site--although 'artifact' is a bad word for him, because he's not a thing. He's alive. And not really a he, actually, but it's easier calling him that. His name is Khaji Da."

Jaime laughed a little laugh. "He wants me to tell you that he's a superhero, too."

Oh hey, another person who talks to machines! Will caught herself smiling before she remembered that this guy had been coming at her with razor-blade arms. She couldn't help it - he felt nice. And definitely like a superhero.

There was still the matter of the razor-arms, though.

"Okay, wait - If you're a superhero, what did you attack me for?" she asked, still conscious of the fact that she'd used her powers in front of everyone - and also that nobody seemed phased by it, so maybe if she was lucky, she wouldn't have to explain herself afterwards.

It looked like she was surrounded by people who ran across lightning-throwing girls all the time, actually.

"And why would you sprout a beam weapon in the middle of making nice?" Lucca sounded extremely vexed as she slowly lowered her Wondershot, her heartrate finally returning to normal. Her legs still trembled a bit.

"I have a very, very good explanation for both, I promise."

He pointed to Will. "There was some kind of giant bug that crawled up on your back--your back was away from the rest of the group so they weren't seeing it. We're talking..."

He held out his hands to show how big it was.

"Pretty big. And it had a very, very large stinger. I figured if I yelled 'Hey, you have a big stingy monster bug on your back!' you'd freak out--understandably--and get stung, so I jumped in and swiped it off and was trying to kill it. Then it skittered off while you were all trying to shoot me, and you knocked the wind out of me with that little lightning trick you did, so I was out of breath, since you actually shorted out some of the suit's systems and, um, it hurt. Which was why I couldn't talk at first. I spotted it again and the scarab reacted, wanting me to shoot it, because it's not the brightest bug sometimes when it's gunning for something."

There was the mental equivalent of a "hmph" from the scarab at that, but Jaime ignored it.

"...Annnd now I don't see it anywhere, so everyone should keep the Space-raid handy because that means it's running loose around the...whatever it is we're in."

Edited 2008-06-23 05:13 (UTC)

"What?!" A bug? A giant bug? With a stinger? On her back? Eeek! "Ohmygosh."

She started to say "Trick? What trick?" but thought better of it. The jig was up - why try to deny it?

"I . . . can try to find it," she offered. "And I'm sorry I hurt you. I wouldn't have if I'd known about the bug."

Wally realized something Jaime had said

"Waitasec, Blue Beetle? What about Ted?"

"Who are you?"

That he knew Ted?

"I'm figuring a superhero, obviously, but no costume makes it hard to figure who..."

"Oh, right. The Flash."

"Is this a time travel thing or an alternate dimensioney thing? BEcause our Flash would know what was up with Ted."

"Possibly both. So seriously, what happened with Ted?"

Jaime bit his lip.

"If it's a time travel thing, I...can't tell you. If you're from the past."

"...Ted died didn't he?"

"Or got lost in another dimension. Or got roped into running around time with Booster Gold. Or retired because of an accident. Or... there's a lot of things. He could be dead. He could be retired. He could be not on Earth and decided it needed a Blue Beetle. I can't risk telling you. Stuff...depended on what happened. Depended on him. Depended me becoming a Blue Beetle."

Edited 2008-06-23 06:55 (UTC)

Now that all the high tension was dropping off, Jono's headache was coming back. He rubbed at his temple, listening carefully the entire time.

The new voice from the kid's direction (and when did a guy in his late teens become a kid to Jono? Cor, was he getting old?) made him stop and stare a bit. If anybody's wonderin', he ain't lyin' 'bout it talkin' to 'im. It would take some time for Jono to figure out quite how to 'listen' to Khaji Da, but it was mostly understandable to him.

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