[center] [hr][hr] [img]https://res.cloudinary.com/teepublic/image/private/s--Kl3ScUff--/t_Preview/b_rgb:191919,c_limit,f_auto,h_313,q_90,w_313/v1512130609/production/designs/2126250_1[/img][/center] [right][h2][color=7ea7d8]The Blue Beetle stars in...The Runaway: Issue #13[/color][/h2] [url=https://www.roleplayerguild.com/posts/4748648]Previous Issue[/url][/right] [hr][hr] [b]O'erlanii - Temple of Derath'ath Machlan'n[/b] [center][img]https://i.imgur.com/xRCEhZJ.png[/img][/center] Jaime dug his fingers between the entangling tendril and his throat, screaming until he felt blood rising up in his mouth. For all of his inhuman strength, the A'askvarii natives had been kicked into a ravenous frenzy by the malignant power that coursed through their alien veins. That power beat crimson within their cheeks, flooding into every nerve, pore and sinew as they thrashed and cut at the scarab with all of their might. Reyes tried to hold out. He tried to cut his way through their pulsating mass, sending sprays of blood and cancer out into the sea water; but it wasn't enough. It was far from enough. He could feel his very skin peeling underneath their suction cups. Razor sharp beaks were tearing long, ugly strips from the suit's chitin as it screeched and screamed in utter, indescribable agony. Jaime felt it's pain through their shared nervous system, every inch of it slowly burning away underneath wave after wave of poignant trauma. [color=7ea7d8]"Get...off.."[/color] Reyes turned his grip about, wrapping his fingers around the tentacle attempting to strangle him. Even as he felt sea water flowing inside his suit from the various puncture wounds the alien horde had created, he began to push back against them, gaining more and more leverage by the second. [color=7ea7d8]"...of..me!"[/color] With a mighty heave he threw the cephalopod over his head, sending it careening against the temple wall with enough force to crack the stone. His blades melted away, replaced by a pair of igniting plasma cannons that he quickly turned on the rest of the crowd now that he could breathe. The water crackled and sizzled as blasts as hot as the sun filled the tight hallway, incinerating every living thing between Jaime and the other end of the hall. The water evaporated along the way, though the dead air was filled in by the crushing weight of the ocean in less than a second. Melted stone mingled with the remains of blackened corpses as silence temporarily fell over the temple of the Goddess of Protection, offering Reyes momentary peace. Turning his head down toward the opposite end of the corridor, Jaime took in a deep breath. [i]'Someone...someone said my name...'[/i] It could've very well been a hallucination due to a lack of oxygen. In fact, that was the most likely answer. [i]'But I heard it. I know I did.'[/i] If there was even one person left alive and untouched by the infection, they would no doubt have fallen back to Derath'ath Machlan'n's great temple. The A'askvarii believed that she would never abandon them in times of need- and Jaime was pretty sure the end of the world qualified. With no option but to either way for more monsters to descend upon him or to seek out the helpless, he chose to advance down the hall, flying through the water as quickly as his boosters could carry him. *** [b]Unknown[/b] [img]https://i.imgur.com/XiIkKIW.png[/img] Jaime's screams rocked Brenda to her core, but she was doing her damndest not to show it. Paco was already on the edge of panic; he didn't need to see her start losing her cool if she didn't want him to go over the edge. She fought to keep the fear contained, swallowing it down even as Reyes's agonized cries reverberated through her head like a ringing gong. "Come on, fight it. Fight that thing, Jaime!" She didn't know if he could hear her. She didn't even know if it mattered whether he was fighting against it's control or not. But the doctor- for all of his apparent madness- was the only one who'd offered them a solution for saving him; and that solution involved nearly killing him with whatever airborn toxin was contained within that cream-colored fog. Reyes stumbled forward out of the mist, immediately falling down upon his hands and knees. The armored flesh of the monster was bubbling and popping, pus squirting out across it's ebony surface. Parts of it were peeling away, revealing the pinkish, distorted flesh of the boy trapped underneath. Dark marks were beginning to form across Jaime's visible skin- while it wasn't nearly as bad as what it was doing to the monster, it still looked incredibly painful. The parasite that clung so fiercely to him was being torn apart by the compound in the air, that much was clear; Brenda only hoped that her friend could survive the process to it's completion. It looked as if it was working right up until Jaime began to speak. [b][color=7ea7d8]"ﾉ ﾑﾶ ズんﾑﾌﾉ りﾑ."[/color][/b] Words that could not sit on a human tongue flowed forth from his mouth, and the living shell around him began to slink and crawl back upon itself. The armor struggled against the melting of the compound, attempting to string it's liquid metal form together, weaving and bonding stronger than it had been before. Jaime fought to stand, clawing at the floor and tearing holes in the concrete in his slow rise to his feet. He began to advance, his gaze set on Brenda. Yellowish, dead eyes tracked her every movement as the beast seemed to make for her at a crawl's pace. "Jaime?" She felt her mouth go dry as she met those eyes and saw nothing of her friend in there. He wasn't the one in control. "You know me. And I know you would never hurt me-" She wasn't sure if she was trying to get through to her friend or if she was attempting to comfort herself moments before having an alien parasite tear her limb from limb. Whatever the purpose of her words, she kept speaking; it was all she could do in the moment to keep from breaking down. "We're- we're trying to help you. But to do that, we need you to...push through this. Yeah. Push through it. It should almost be done. Just hang in-" [b][color=7ea7d8]"√乇刀ム乇ﾑ刀ᄃ乇!"[/color][/b] The creature lunged at her, it's hands morphing and folding into some form of bladed weapons in a grotesque display of twisting flesh and mangling bone. Brenda took a step backward to dodge out of the way, Paco's scream echoing from behind her. Horrific sounds like the burning of sinew reached her ear as it swung for her, the razor sharp tip of the weapon cutting a slight hole through the center of her suit; she'd been too slow. "Oh, shit. Shit! He cut my suit!" She cried out, slapping her hand up against the incision. She pressed her palm down as tightly against her chest as she could to keep it sealed; she couldn't let the fog leak inside and get to her body. Paco must've finally realized that he had to do something as he leapt into action, rushing to grab Brenda's shoulders and drag her away from the alien. The fog was too crippling for it to give any sort of meaningful chase, allowing the two teenagers to retreat to a safe distance. [color=pink]"You're losing him!"[/color] Doctor Caulder warned. [color=pink]"The host needs to be rejecting the [i]Parainsectum's[/i] control for the agent to work to it's full affect. You must convince Jaime to let go of it for him to be free. If you do not hurry, the substance will kill [i]him[/i] before it kills the parasite!"[/color] "We're trying!" Paco screamed, his head swiveling away from Brenda and over toward the stumbling form of his friend. Tendrils of blueish, blackish liquid were flinging about within the fog, tearing away from the main mass before throwing themselves back at the body in the hopes of reconnecting themselves. It was a disgusting display that made Paco's stomach churn. He couldn't let it get to him. He had to focus on saving his friend, no matter how terrible the situation looked. "The Jaime Reyes I know wouldn't let some two-bit alien mucus control him!" He yelled, apparently drawing that mucus's attention- and it's wrath- when it began to move even faster toward them. " *** [b]O'erlanii - Temple of Derath'ath Machlan'n[/b] Statues of the goddess grew more common the deeper into the corridors and byways that Jaime went. Offerings of harvested algae and crops had been placed within baskets at the foot of some. Others had livestock thrown onto thermite pyres sitting under their outstretched tendrils. It was all incredibly familiar at this point. He knew their customs, their beliefs and their culture just as well as the rest of the natives- because it was [i]his[/i] culture, too. He had bowed at the feet of these same statues. He had offered up his life to Derath'ath Machlan'n the day he had grown into a man. He had lived among the A'askvarii for decades, adapting to their lifestyle and integrating himself deeply into their society. Yet... He knew not why. Why was he here in this place? When had he come here? Who had sent him? There were no answers buried within the darkest corners of his mind. Only vague feelings that something was amiss. Like some part of him had been...removed or corrupted. It didn't make a whole lot of sense. Ma'at Hur'r had searched all of his life for the meaning behind the scarab, but it had never offered him anything more than a proverbial shrug of the shoulders. He ran a tendril along the wall, feeling the coarse, rough stone through the living chitin that adorned each of his six limbs. This armor was the only reason he had survived his encounters with the infestation so far. It was the reason that he was the last of his kind that still roamed free of that malignant force's control. And it would be the reason he would die alone in these harrowed halls, cold and broken. But he was sure he had heard a voice. It had called out a name, though...he was not sure if it was his own. He had to find it. He had to push deeper into the temple. The last bastion lay not far from where he currently swam; perhaps only a few minutes away at top speed. Pushing onward, he cast aside the dread that lingered so heavily upon his mind. He had to focus. If he could save even one life- even one... It took several minutes, but Ma'at eventually found himself at his destination. A great gate stretching forty feet into the air and carved with ancient symbols of his people. He remembered coming here with his father when he was a boy. It was a trek all the young men took when they came of age- they came to see the place where the goddess was supposedly born. Her cradle was said to lay on the other side of the door, in a chamber so large that one couldn't see the walls nor ceiling for miles. Ma'at Hur'r stabbed his tentacles into the stone, a painful feeling welling up in his chest as he violated this sacred place. It was the safest chamber on the planet. If the priests had survived the outbreak, they would have fled inside with as many civilians as they could. Perhaps they had even taken some of the offerings and sacrifices inside so that they might sustain themselves while the plague ravaged the world and ran itself dry. He could only hope that was the case as he forced open the doors, using the scarab's great might to drag those mighty stone gates open wide. It creaked and shuddered, though after much straining he managed to pry the threshold wide open, revealing the chamber that lay beyond. He found not the cradle of Derath'ath Machlan'n, but instead something so entirely alien that his mind could nary process what it was being shown. The sea had given way to air and grass and trees. Concrete turned to some kind of black pavement, with odd...white and yellow streaks painted on it. It looked like some sort of street. Ma'at saw a single structure on the other side of the pavement. It was forged from some kind of wood- a substance foreign to the ocean world of his home, yet somehow familiar...knowledge offered up by Khaji Da, no doubt. A fence made of steel chains linked together was drawn before the odd building. He moved on unsteady limbs toward it, dragging himself along the ground until he passed through an unlocked gate. More stones led across the grass and toward the porch, where the door appeared to be not only unlocked, but ajar. Raising a brow, he entered inside. It hit him square in the back with enough momentum and strength to drag Ma'at to the ground. He let out a surprised cry as he felt a pair of powerful limbs take hold of his back from behind, wrapping about his chest. He looked down at them, even more surprised by what he saw there. They were not the tentacles of one of his fallen brothers, but...hairless monkey arms. Pink flesh pulled taut over powerful muscles seemed to stretch as droplets of salty water cascaded down it. Sweat? How did Ma'at know what sweat was? [color=7ea7d8]"Release me!"[/color] He cried in a tongue not his own. [color=7ea7d8]"Release me at once!"[/color] With all of the strength in his- legs?!- Ma'at threw himself backwards into the wall, sending them both crashing through it and into an unoccupied sitting room. Wood and drywall caught in his mouth as he fell to the ground, causing Ma'at to cough with lungs he shouldn't have had. "No, no! I can't!" The man cried out, his voice cracking and broken. Sorrow seeped into his every word as he wrestled all of the harder to keep a hold on Ma'at. As strong as the man was, Ma'at knew he was impossibly stronger. Yet he felt an impossible tug on his mind that kept him from using that strength to lash out against his attacker. "I- I won't let you go. Not until I have you back!" The words of his attacker were strange yet moving. They made no sense yet Ma'at felt himself on the verge of tears at the overwhelming emotion of the one attempting to hold him down and drag him to the floor. [color=7ea7d8]"What is happening? Who are you?!"[/color] He demanded, the world changing colors around him as the details melted away into vague sensations and imaginings of a world far from earth. Terrors concocted by an imagination belonging to another were broken down as reality fought tooth and nail to restore itself to him. "It's [b]ME![/b] It's Paco! You know me, Jaime- I'm...I'm..." [color=7ea7d8]"My...My friend..."[/color] [color=7ea7d8]"...Paco..."[/color] [img]https://i.imgur.com/OybCNei.png[/img] [color=0072bc][b]'Jaime Reyes. The man that used our hands to kill is near. Take vengeance, Jaime Reyes. Do not throw me away until our goal is-'[/b][/color] The world went black.