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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"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.

Unfortunately for Jono, even just hearing Khaji took a bit of telepathic surface probing, and the scarab did NOT like telepaths.

Jono got a mental shove of sorts from the scarab that likely made his head ache just a little worse. Not hard enough to hurt him or even shake him, so fortunately he wouldn't collapse bleeding from the nose and mouth in agony like Probe had once done, but it was the equivalent of a mental door slammed in Jono's face. With a "Do Not Disturb" sign.

He would be able to communicate telepathically with Jaime like he did with everyone, but now that the scarab knew he was there and a telepath, Jaime's mind was a closed book. Nothing was going to be allowed in further than Jono's "talking" was concerned, and nothing was going to come out.

Maybe some day, it'd work with Jono to learn to talk directly with him, but right now, it was possessive, apparently. It wanted to be the only thing with free reign of Jaime's brain.

Jaime held a hand to his temple, registering what the Scarab was doing.

"Oh, uh, fair warning to any telepaths, stay out, 'cause the scarab doesn't like telepathic probing aannnd he can hurt you. I mean, I'll yell at him if he does, but he'll hurt you. Telepathy freaks him out. Telepathic communication is okay, but no digging around."

Edited 2008-06-23 12:18 (UTC)

Well. There was surprisingly little bloodshed. Things had quieted down, and by now it seemed safe enough for a current non-combatant to actually try to take stock of what was going on.

What, Tony? Diving for cover? Nope. Never. If nobody had seen it, it didn't happen.

More superhero talk, but not quite from his particular stretch of the universe. At least nobody was going to spring some other future-speak on him. Bugs, symbiotes. Things just got more complicated, instead of simpler.

A hand had gone to his brow. Sooner or later, he was going to stop thinking about what was going on around him, and that would be dangerous. The culture shock was too much.

Still, he was damned tired. All Tony really wanted was a scotch. Screw explaining any of it.

After tightening the force-bands enough to give Hudson a warning squeeze, Vincent dissipated the spell. "Now..." His voice was far more relaxed. Releasing some of his magical power had acted as a pressure release valve for his frenzied emotions. "--I believe we can make standard introductions." He approached Jaime. "Vincent Amorason." He bowed slightly.

"Did you see any other individuals released besides you and your companion?" He looked at Paco. "Does he have any sort of... talents?"

Jono winced again, fingers pressing tighter to his temple. Just what he really didn't need.

He was not saying anything out loud about that. Stacy might try to give him a mild sedative. Which really wouldn't help.

Tell 'im I'm sorry 'bout that, he finally said to Jaime. His 'voice' had dropped a few levels, partly out of pain and partly just tightening his mind up. Bloody ship's psychic an' it's sorta thrown me of me game. Not to mention me powers. Didn' mean t' barge in like that.

Hey, he knew when he was in the wrong. Apologizing would, at least, be a step in the right direction.

Jono Starsmore. Long as we're doin' introductions. Which was one name more than most of them had heard already.

"I can offend people in seven languages," Paco said, raising an eyebrow at Vincent. Sure, go ahead, ask Jaime about Paco's skills. It wasn't like Paco was standing right there or anything.

Marking Vincent down as "not worth it", Paco turned to the girl who had tackled him, taking in the weapons she was carrying. Yep. Muuuuch more interesting. "Don't think I've seen you in the papers yet. You part of the Arrow clan, chica?"

"Nice to meet you, Jono. And no we didn't see anybody else," he added to Vincent.

That flash of blue, though...

"Paco is a man of many talents."

Lucca started to holster--oh wait, large stinging insect on the loose. Better keep it handy. Introducing herself might help too.

"Lucca Ashtear. And I'm sorry about drawing on you, it's been something of a weird day," she added, grinning a bit sheepishly. "Nice suit, by the way..."

Mental note: No symbiotic gadgets permanently grafted to self yet. Must rectify this.

This is when Starfire decided to show herself.

She was too busy gaping at the sights in the, er, colony that she had missed a good chunk of the commotion.

Her large green eyes brightened considerably when she saw Jaime standing there, making introductions with everyone else in the group.

"Jaime," she said warmly. "It is heartwarming to see another familiar face aboard this ship."

"Languages will likely come in handy with whatever we have to deal with."

Kate then shook her head, "Wrong world, since we definitely made the Bugle repeatedly in mine. I'm with the Young Avengers, sorry for the tackle, but didn't want you in the line of fire with everything going on."

Altercations Are Inevitable

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