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[right][h2][color=7ea7d8]The Blue Beetle stars in...The Runaway: Issue #11[/color][/h2]
[url=https://www.roleplayerguild.com/posts/4736853]Previous Issue[/url][/right]
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[b]Unknown[/b]

Brenda didn't know if she was looking at her friend or a monster. She knew for a fact that Jaime Reyes was trapped inside that hideous shell of living armor. She had watched it steal away his body and take him over from the inside out; but he was still in there. Fighting and straining to get free, no doubt. Yet as she looked upon that angry, twisted visage, she felt a tinge of doubt. That thing could not be the sweet kid that had shown her compassion and humanity when few others would. That monster of sickly steel and unrepentant violence was so far removed from the teenage boy that slept through half of his classes and goofed off in the other half that Brenda could not help but deny it.

In her heart of hearts she knew the truth, yet her mind refused to accept what her eyes were being shown.

Jaime- or whatever had taken him over- was suspended twenty feet in the air inside of a gargantuan machine of some sort. The entire room was centered around this pillar-like object covered in stretches of cable and piping. The Beetle was being contained within a glass capsule inserted within this giant pillar of machinery. He was strapped, tied down and all but bolted together to keep him from hurting himself or breaking out of his containment unit.

And there was no doubt that, if free, that thing would be uncontrollable. Even now, with every joint held down by massive iron shackles, the little demon was thrashing and frantically throwing itself about. He was like...like a lunatic in a straight jacket. Or an animal in chains. It awoke a primal, terrible fear within her chest to see someone she cared about in such unrelenting agony.

"You're studying him, right?" Paco's voice break Brenda out of her trance. She turned away from the viewing window, her gaze tracing over her giant of a best friend. He had his arms crossed over his barrel chest, his eyes straightened into tight lines as he took in everything he was seeing. She could tell that something was going on within that brain of his; was he trying to decipher their captor's intentions? She hoped so. Every moment they spent in this hellhole made her more and more uneasy.

The old man in the wheelchair gave a slow, stiff nod that threatened to snap his pencil neck.[color=pink] "That's correct. That creature that's bonded itself to your friend..."[/color] Doctor Caulder pursed his chapped, cracked lips, his gaze wandering away from Paco and over to the monster in it's cage. [color=pink]"It's very, very dangerous."[/color]

Brenda's jaw tightened. "I could'a told you that." She snorted. "Thing's killed over thirty people by now. I think the better question is what you're planning to [i]do[/i] with it."

"And why you had your creepy goon kidnap us." Paco added quickly with an angry huff. 

Caulder raised a wrinkled hand. [color=pink]"Alright, alright..."[/color] He shook his head, letting out a laugh that could make a baby cry.[color=pink] "Kids these days. Always diving in head first."[/color] Leaning further back into his wheelchair, he let his hands fall down to his lap as he began to answer their questions with a deliberate cadence. [color=pink]"I want to help your friend. That's God's honest truth. And I think I can do it."[/color] 

With a quick wave he gestured toward their surroundings. There wasn't a single piece of tech in the room that didn't look like it hadn't come straight from the year three thousand. "As you can see I am a man of...significant resources. I've been studying things like that creature since I was just a young man. I don't think it'd be braggadocious to say I'm the world's leading expert on them."

"And what [i]are[/i] they? You said you had a name for things like that?" Paco interrupted.

[color=pink]"Patience! Patience! I'm getting to that, boy. I believe the closest word to explain what they are that you would understand would be...extraterrestrial. These, ah, parasites? They come from space."[/color]

Paco looked like someone had just punched him straight in the stomach and told him that he was adopted all in the same moment. "It's...an alien?"

[color=pink]"Yes! Well, in a fashion. Subject Blue has been on earth far longer than any other living thing. I believe it may even pre-date the Bialyan object it was posing as, though our dating methods have all proven too unreliable thus far to know for certain."[/color]

Brenda didn't much care where the hell it came from. She just wanted to get it off of Jaime without hurting him so they could all go home. "So do you have a way to get it off of Jaime or not?" She jumped in, her voice sharp and lacking even a degree of patience. She was done with this craziness. She'd just been dropped through a hole in reality thirty minutes ago. One of her friends was being held captive by some kind of alien parasite. Brenda had had enough of all of it, so she was rather ready to get to the point.

"He does," Paco muttered, a hand moving up to clutch his chin as his eyes fell down to his shoes. The sudden courage that had overtaken him seemingly melted away as he sheepishly finished his thought, "and he needs us to do it."

[color=pink]"Your friend is brighter than he looks."[/color] Dr. Caulder grinned up at Brenda, and she felt a horrific tingle crawl up her spine. [color=pink]"I do have a plan. And if you truly wish to see Mr. Reyes again, I suggest you help me pursue it."[/color]

***

Brenda and Paco stood alone in a dark room, silence hanging between them. They had yelled at one another until their throats went raw for over ten minutes after they learned what Caulder's 'plan' entailed. Brenda was willing to do anything to get Jaime back, but Paco...She could understand why he would be hesitant to do it. What their kidnapper was suggesting was absolute insanity, and it was horrifically, terribly dangerous for the two of them. Yet it was also the only surefire way to get their friend [i]back.[/i] Paco thought they should find a way to escape so that they could call SHIELD- the guys that made the CIA look like a church support group.

She wasn't going to abandon Jaime. Leaving him behind with that freak of an old man wasn't an option as far as she was concerned. And letting him stay trapped inside that [i]alien monster[/i] wasn't going to fly either. Even if it meant siding with the people and monsters that had dragged her out of her car and nearly killed her.

There were several racks of identical environment suits hanging up in lockers along each of the small room's walls. Benches sat not far from those. The suits themselves were all fairly light, save for the heavier square helmets. Their off-color cream material reminded Brenda of an astronaut's gear, in a way. She was able to pull it all on over her normal clothes without too much difficulty, surprised by how it shrunk down to match her size once everything was in place.

Paco was having a fair bit more trouble. He wasn't able to reach the zipper-like sealing line on his back. For all of his turning, huffing and reaching, the boy was just too large for his own good. 

Sighing to herself, she crossed over to him and placed a gentle hand on his shoulder. "Here." She offered, reaching back to help him.

She was surprised when he recoiled away from her. "Don't." He nearly growled, trying to restraint his anger at her through his gritted teeth. She had trouble seeing him face through their helmets, but Brenda didn't need to see to know how he was feeling. Paco was good at a great many things. Hiding how he felt wasn't one of them.

"Oh, come on." She sighed, crossing her arms over her chest. "You can't still be mad at me."

"I can and I am." He quickly responded. "This is stupid and you know it! We shouldn't be here-"

"Well no shit, Paco, but we're [i]here[/i]. And Jaime is out there-" She gestured toward the door. "-And I'm not...I'm not leaving him behind again."

"This...this is a fundamentally [i]bad[/i] idea. Jaime would not agree to let us do this." Despite the words he was speaking with such vigor and passion, Paco was still trying to zip up the environment suit. He was still getting ready to go in there. "If it doesn't work, we're dead. And God forbid that it [i]does[/i] work-"

"[b]PACO[/b]!" Brenda all but screamed his name. Her anger caused him to freeze up, turning his full attention toward her. She felt a wave of shame wash over her, her voice dropping to more acceptable levels immediately afterward. "Paco...We can...We can figure that out afterwards, okay? Just- we have to do this. It's the only chance we've got at saving him. Please."

Paco shook his head, his hands falling down to his sides. "I hope you're right."

[i]'Me too, Pac.'[/i]

[i]'Me too.'[/i]