DC Infinity - Blue Beetle

A ‘Solaris Strikes' Tie-In

She sat in silence, hands either side of her temples. Her hair pulled into tight bunches above her ears. The bedside table before her was illuminated by the glowing marks of white underneath her eyes, in thick bars, and long spirals leading down the side of her face. Her eyes were closed with pain, and frustration.

She knew exactly what it was – something warping the Leylines of the planet. She'd first come across this sensation when she worked with Dr. Mist in the 60's, although she didn't look old enough to have possibly been that talented or capable during that period of time. All the lines of magic across the planet had been warped beyond recognition, by an event hailed at the time as a meteor crash, but was in fact, the downing of an alien craft.

A careful observation would have put her into her late 20's, but she was close to her late 200's. As she got to her feet, she felt the room grow cold, as though all heat had been sucked from it, by a big battery.

She clapped her arms around her waist and chest, trying to keep some body heat, as her breath came out in plumes of mist.

She felt unsteady for a moment as she got up, stumbling towards the table. Grabbing the edge with her hands, she felt the feeling drop from her digits as the temperature gradient became even steeper.

“It's coming.” She said to nobody, her voice as thick as gravel with phlegm and pain.

“The heat stealer is coming.”

After a deep gulp, she looked at her flashing mobile on her table.

There were three missed calls.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

“So, you going to help me out at all, or are we just going to continue to try and fight these guys separately?” Jaime asked, diving behind a car, as armor piercing rounds exploding through the sides of the vehicle. He cast a glance over the shattered window base into the street.

There were five of them; all holding what looked to be powerful automatic weapons. Reports confirmed they were known as “The Fightin' Five.” Apparently based on the fact that one of their grandfathers was part of a similar team that operated in World War II against the Nazis. Jaime wondered what exactly they thought they were fighting against.

“Way to carry on the legacy, guys.” Jaime said to himself, as another round exploded through the top of the car, spraying sparks onto his shoulders. He looked underneath the car, in time to see a woman's foot press down gently, followed by her knee and fingertips pressed silently against the floor.

“Hey!” He whispered harshly.

“Get down, otherwise they'll see you and...” before he could finish his sentence, the woman had to leap over the top of the car, bullets flying past her, and through her acrobatic movements. She landed deftly beside Jaime, and gave him a confused look.

Nothing that came out of her mouth sounded England, and from her features Jaime concluded she was Asian. Jaime shrugged his shoulders, he was sure that the Scarab could translate if it wanted too, but it probably didn't. Willful little thing.

“Not very specific, Scarab.” He said to himself sarcastically, finally shaking his head in frustration and standing up. The carapace shields snapped upwards from his wrists, and inter-locked in the centre, providing the both of them with more than adequate defense against the rounds.

As they bounced off his shields, but Jaime still winced. It hurt.

“This hurts you know, maybe you should think about doing something to help the situation, not that you can even understand what I am saying however…What are you doing?”

Jaime had just noticed that her costume had been fastened with a bold and primary display of the rising sun motif. Maybe that was a clue where she was from. The woman got to her feet and shed her leather jacket. In her hand she held fragments of the shattered glass.

“Scarab: Translate to Japanese….Please?” The Scarab made an audible noise, and Jaime turned to her, hoping his words were translated correctly.

“Hi, I'm Blue Beetle, who are you and what are you doing?” He asked quickly. Her head snapped to the side to look at him, registering what she had to say, but she said nothing in return.

Leaping with a hand-planted vault over Jaime's head, she flicked her wrist, sending the fragments of glass into the hand of the assailant with the armor piercing rounds. He screamed with pain as the other four turned their weapons to Jaime and the martial artist. Jaime dove across the short expanse and threw a shield up around her, as the bullets ricocheted off his armored form and against the various surfaces around him.

“It's clearly going to get worse before it gets better.” As he turned into the hail of bullets, and lifted his right hand, creating a pair of pincers, and his left hand transforming into a large “gun” end. As he walked forwards, the bullets still bouncing off his form, he grabbed hold of the first gun, and twisted it, shooting a burst of energy into the mans chest sending him hurtling towards the bank they'd tried to rob.

The three other men ceased their shots for a moment, before bringing their weapons to bear again. By this point, Jaime had reached his tolerance.

“THOSE REALLY HURT!” He yelled, as a burst of energy, much larger than the previous one, shot out of both his hands knocking the trio off their feet. As Jaime approached the leader, who was trying to get up and pull the pin out of a grenade, his fist was stayed by the metal hand of man who must have been in his fifties. Graying temples creased with a smile. With a swift kick to the leaders face, he was dropped.

“Blue Beetle, right?” He offered through a haze of cigar smoke.

“We got it covered from here.”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

It had been a long time since anyone had called him a Nature Boy, but David Crandall still felt the child-like excitement and rush of using his powers. Of course, many had compared him to a poor man's Shazam, since his powers were derived by taking abilities from various Gods, but that wasn't going to make him concerned. He didn't care what they thought of him anymore – Not since what happened with Sarah, Nature Girl. He was going to save the world, but not so much the people in it.

As he pushed the winds around with his hands, blowing out bursts of fire by cutting their oxygen supply off, he finished his work, and knelt on the ground, to say a prayer for the gods that granted him their powers.

Digging his fingers into the ground, he felt a sudden ripple across the surface of his body, as his cells restructured themselves. He felt that same movement across the Earth's biosphere.

A sudden wave of sickness washed over him, and he felt as though he was going to faint. Placing his other hand into the ground to steady himself, he felt the upheaval in the upper atmosphere of the planet.

Casting his eyes to the sky, he felt the ripples of the planets natural order being altered across the Parliament of Clades, the Governing body of every natural and biological force across the planet itself. As Chlorophyll flooded his skin cells turning him green, and powering him by the light of the sun, he felt the presence of the Plant Parliament, the Green inside his body. He felt his skin cells burn immediately, causing him to exhale in pain and scuttle across the ground towards the shade of the large tree above him. Here he sat, his back against the tree bark, patting the burning areas of flesh and gasping for breath. David felt a screaming within his mind, from the pain-stricken tree behind him.

“It's coming. The Death-Light is coming.”

“I'll help you, my friend.” David said, as he pressed his palm against the bark of the tree.

David fumbled for his phone – he needed to call Zaza.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Jaime looked from the Asian woman, who was sitting in silence, with a very stoic and somewhat irritating position. He really got a snobby vibe from her, and wanted to get away. Maybe she was some Japanese royalty? Did they have royals in Japan? Jaime's thought was broken as he was address by the older man.

“Blue Beetle, my name is Steel. You can call me Sarge, though.” He chomped down on the cigar and pulled it from his lips with a plume of smoke with a big toothy grin.

“Okay?” He said blankly. He wasn't really sure what to ask or say. Clearly this was a military operation, and Jaime had no idea what to do in these situations. Sure, he'd watched 24 but that was slightly different to normal life.

“It's not like 24 is it?” Jaime asked, snapping out of his day-dream.

“What? What is 24?” Jaime shook his head to the Sarge's reply and waited for him to continue.

“Good work on taking down these five.” H gestured towards the five men, bound at the wrists and ankles, and tied to brackets on the helicopter wall. They were separated from the trio by a large metal mesh.

“I know they don't look it but they hold some important secrets in their heads.”

Jaime nodded again, and felt the Scarab pull at his spine. It wanted to retreat. Jaime didn't want that – he might need the protection, for his identity as well as if Sarge was less than friendly.

“Mr. Steel...”

“Sarge.” He grinned through his cigar.

“Sarge…What do you want from me exactly?” Jaime was growing increasingly concerned. Where they going to try and deploy him in the middle-east? He didn't want that.

“Me? I want you to join the Living Assault Weapons – a Covert group that acts under my watch for the Government and the world at large.”

“We…Do what now?”

“Look, Son, I know this is difficult for you, but we've got something big on the Horizon. I've already had three of my officer's call in. I need you and the Judomaster over there.” He paused to point towards the Asian woman, who turned to look at the duo as she heard her name.

“So, we're working for Uncle Sam?” Jaime asked, looking from the “Judomaster” to the Sergeant.

“No, Uncle Sam runs the freedom fighters. We're something different; we're working on behalf of America.” Steel offered, before continuing with his speech.

“Your predecessor's all took part in this group, Ted Kord was a good friend of mine, and now with most of them long gone, or retired...” He paused for a moment, a thought of how his own life turned out for him to be the oldest but the only one still active.

“I need all your capabilities. I've had to stick to the younger generation, with the exception of a few, because of your capabilities, particularly yours, Jaime.” He continued. Jaime noticed a hint of sadness in his eyes, something in that pause had made him feel something, something he'd not noticed in the bravado and manliness before.

That was before the realization woke him up. Jaime's eyes snapped open and he lurched forwards.

“How do you know my name?” He asked with the Scarab screaming for him to retreat in the back of his head.

“I know a lot of things, Jaime, but I want you to be part of this team. So, please, do me a favor and stay in your place and do as I say, right? You've just been deputized.”

The rest of the journey was silent, as Jaime thought of ways to beat the crap out of the old war-horse.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Her crimson fingers raked over his back, as he pushed into her a final time. Their breath both ragged and drawn, sweat trickling down the narrow pass between their bodies. He looked down at her flesh, nipping gently at her neck and kissing her softly on her hard lips.

Yellowjacket and the Red Bee had been seeing each other for several months now and it was getting serious to the point of meeting family and friends. They enjoyed each others company, and had met on a team-up against Baron Bug some months earlier when he had tried to take over the world using Cockroaches.

They'd hit it off instantly, as they both had similar powers. The one difference being Yellowjackets retractable chitin exoskeleton, Red Bee's was not. However, the structural differences made up for this issue, as Red Bee was much more a woman in a shell, than the Yellowjackets hard and inhuman armor. It made no difference to him, he was falling for her. She was the first woman he felt something for in a long time. He smiled and lay down next to her sliding his hand into hers, as she fluttered her wings underneath her.

They were both suddenly gripped by a feeling neither of them had felt before. It was almost as though the weight of the insectoid mind was crushing them, pinning them to the spot. He managed to squeeze her hand as a sign of reassurance during the “fit.”

All they could think of during this moment of devastating weight were words that had no meaning for either of them.

“It's coming. The Route maker is coming.”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Sarge Steel took the podium and threw the nearly spent cigar onto the ground. Before him was an auditorium, with a number of people sat in chairs across the room. Jaime sat down a few rows ahead of the Judomaster, who removed her jacket, and folded it perfectly before placing it gently on a chair next to her. Snooty Jaime thought.

He rolled his eyes and willed the Scarab back into his body. As the plates snapped back through tiny slits in his flesh, he looked around the room. To his left was a woman, clearly military from her immaculate uniform and Green Beret, with bright silver skin. He wondered if she was a Scarab like him, or something else entirely.

A few rows before her sat another woman, this one with a darker skin tone, possibly from Italy or Rome and more modern hair. She had a fringe that was cut just under her eyebrows in a straight and thick line, and perfectly straight, long hair that dropped onto her shoulders. As Jaime stared at her, she turned to look at him, and that was the first time he noticed the Sword at her side. He glanced away as quickly as possible to the next person.

A man dressed entirely in black, including a featureless mask. There was nothing else on his body, except the leather of his costume, and the large question mark, in red leather on his chest. He held a small fedora in his hands, and fiddled with the edges, folding it back and forth in different patterns. Jaime sighed, thinking he was the only normal person out of these weirdoes and looked to the others; a Man dressed in leaves and vines, who was otherwise naked, but extremely well built stood by a potted plant, refusing to sit down next to the woman who sat a few seats away, but continued to gesture to her side. She had bunched hair and glowing white marks underneath her eyes.

A few rows from them sat another couple, a Red skinned woman with a bee-motif in her costume, and a man who wore insectoid armor tinged with yellow and black stripes. The only person not dressed in a costume or in a bizarre way was a solitary African man at the back, his arms crossed with grey corn-rows. As Jaime leaned over the back of his chair to get a better look, he noticed a number of guns at his side, and slid back into place.

“You're probably wondering who these people are.” Came a low whisper from the row behind him; Jaime turned around with a shocked look on his face, to see a middle-aged man in a domino ask, looking somewhat out of place in these surroundings.

“Yeah.” Jaime said, as the man offered him a hand to shake.

“Peter Canon, I'm called the Thunderbolt, and this is my partner (As in crime fighting) Nightstar. Say hello Nightstar.”

“Hello, Nightstar.” Her skin tone was pale, and her hair dark, dark purple. She was clearly not very bright either. There wasn't a lot of light behind her eyes.

“You'll have to forgive her – She's pretty zoned out when she's not under moon-light or in complete darkness. It makes people think she's stupid.”

“It's cool.” Jaime said, before adding “I don't know how people could get that idea.”

Slightly more sarcastic than he would have liked, but it was said now. He bit his lip and slid back into his chair as the Sergeant came to the stand.

“You've all been called here today, because I want you for L.A.W. This is your briefing, I'd say you can walk out now, but you don't have that option. Some of you have worked with me before, those that haven't know this – I am fair, but I will remove you if you do not do as I say. Before we mobilize into this situation we need some clarifications.”

After the preening was over, Jaime felt slightly more concerned. What would happen to him if he messed up, why didn't he get a choice if he wanted to be involved in this or not? He'd just graduated high school for goodness sakes.

Steel pointed towards the screen that opened behind him, and Jaime leaned forward to get a better view – and show he was interested.

“We've discovered these items in the last few days.” Steel pointed towards the screen and only for Jaime to find himself speaking up.

“Scarabs.” He said. The entire contents of the room looked at him.

“Uh. What I mean to say is…They're Scarabs. I get my power from one of them? Like a rebel version of them, I guess.” He rubbed a hand over the back of his head and looked across the room, dead ahead at the screen.

“Whatever is coming to get us, I guess is using Scarab's to do it. After the Swarm event.” Jaime continued.

“Swarm event?” Steel asked.

“Yeah, you know where lots of Scarab's came to Earth to try and take it over and knocked out the power to the planet and stuff.” Jaime now looked at his feet, wishing the ground would swallow him.

Steel paused for a moment and then continued. The military woman shook her head slowly, and the Sword woman smiled at him. Out of amusement, not affect. Her stare lasted just a little too long.

“So these “Scarabs” look like they're powered by exotic energies. It looks like Plasma, Solar Plasma to be more specific. That's what the big-wigs in the lab say. So, it's possible they're from the sun, or another solar mass, although at this point its pure conjecture.”

The screen changed and Jaime felt his heart sink. More Scarab related stuff, when would it end?

The image changed to a large bright mass heading towards Earth.

“It's about Seventeen times smaller than the Moon, but still plenty big. What we're proposing at this point is a strike team of our heavy hitters, include Mr. Muscle who couldn't be present for this briefing, will hit the outside of whatever this is, provided it's hostile, to get the stealth team inside – Once inside, the stealth team is going to shut down the workings and try and get it to land somewhere uninhabited.

“Any Questions?”

Jaime wanted to raise his hand and ask what self-respecting hero would name themselves Mr. Muscle, but restrained himself. Steel might kick his face off.

The man in black raised his hand, finally setting the Fedora down. He stood to his feet, and ignored the stares of the others in the group.

“Why gather us together if you don't know what you're up against. Couldn't the Justice League deal with this?”

“Query, sit down. You're gathered here because I think it's a job more suited to you, than to the League.”

“But we're half unproven recruits. I don't have any powers, and neither does Canon. Half of these kid's haven't even finished their training yet.”

“Hey, we're not all kids.” Canon spoke up, his burrows furrowing.

“Query, that's enough.”

“I want to know before I risk my life, why I was chosen for this. Don't give me some BS story about it being for our country and to protect life – I don't give a damn about those, I just want to know WHY.”

During his speech the Query had gotten off his seat and walked down towards the podium where the Sergeant stood. Dropping the edge of the platform, he got up into the Query's face and spoke quietly, so quietly the others couldn't hear them.

Without saying a word, the man in black walks back towards his seat and sat down in silence. What had Sarge said?

“DISSMISSED!” He yelled, which made Jaime jump.

Jaime looked at his hands as the others slowly stood up, and walked down to Sarge. He wondered what exactly the military man had in store for him.

Next: The Threat Met!

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