[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: Issues #14[/color][/h2] [url=https://www.roleplayerguild.com/posts/4751530]Previous Issue[/url][/right] [hr][hr] [b]Unknown[/b] Jaime woke up screaming. Every inch of his body was caked in sweat and grime as light assaulted his vision, tearing away at the dark embrace of unconsciousness and forcing him to face reality. He threw himself up into a sitting position, his head leaving the comfortable perch of a pillow. There was a pounding in the front of his skull. Nausea wrapped itself around his throat and nestled a dizzying feeling deep within his cranium. It felt like a fog had made it's home inside of his head, and it was taking it's sweet time lifting. His throat was raw and chaffed, turning a terrified cry into a sputtering series of painful coughs. Reyes brought a shaky hand to his head, his eyes flittering open to take in his surroundings. Everything was blurry and out of focus, like a fogged up camera lens. He felt a bout of panic and confusion rising in his chest. A hand found it's way to the back of his own just before Reyes succumbed to anxiety. Delicate fingers wrapped themselves gently around his palm, giving it a comforting squeeze. It took several seconds for his vision to return to him, the cloud in his mind dispersing to reveal the area around him. He was inside of a small, white room with sterile, tiled walls. A piece of medical equipment sat to his right, chirping happily along with his slowly steadying heartbeat. There was an IV bag pumping liquids directly into him on the opposite side of the bed he'd woken up on. "It's okay, Jaime. You're okay." Her voice was familiar, even if the sweetness in her tone was not. [color=7ea7d8]"Brenda? Is that...you?"[/color] Jaime blinked a few more times just to make sure he wasn't hallucinating. No, she was actually seated beside him, her hand wrapped about his own in an alien display of affection that made his cheeks light red. He had no idea what she could be doing here, or even where [i]here[/i] was. It looked like some kind of hospital, but that didn't make any sense. "No shit it's me." She laughed at his expense. That was more her speed. "You've been out for-" "JAIME!" Before she could finish, another equally familiar voice all but shouted right in Reyes's ear. A pair of arms shaped like tree trunks found their way around his body, squeezing Jaime hard enough that he could hear his back pop in three different places. "I thought- I thought you were dead!" Paco was somewhere between balling his eyes out and jumping for joy. Jaime couldn't muster a response outside of a cough, his lungs too compressed for words. "Jesus, Paco, ease up!" Brenda chided, dragging the much larger boy back off of Reyes. It was only after she had physically removed him that Paco seemed to notice that Jaime couldn't breathe. He retreated to a chair far too small for him, a sheepish frown snaking it's way across his face. "Sorry." He halfheartedly chuckled, rubbing one of his powerful arms. Reyes merely waved it off. [color=7ea7d8]"Nah, nah, you're fine-"[/color] He tried to laugh, his voice giving out partway through to another series of coughing fits. Concern marred both Brenda and Paco's faces. Jaime must've been in worse shape than they had originally thought. [color=7ea7d8]"You were, uh, telling me how long I've been out?"[/color] "Two days." Brenda nodded, her hand finally falling away from his and returning to rest on her lap. "Do you...remember anything? About what happened, I mean." His expression fell, his gaze shifting away from hers and down to his knees. [color=7ea7d8]"I...I don't think so...Everything's all-"[/color] He twirled a finger around his temple. [color=7ea7d8]"Fuzzy. I've only got bits and pieces. I was in...a museum, last I remember. Did you guys drag me on one'a those dumbass field trips again?"[/color] Paco burst out laughing, his massive, baseball-mitt sized hands falling down onto his knees. "You're darn right we did!" He howled. "You complained about it the entire time, too." [color=7ea7d8]"Who wouldn't?! We're on break, why the hell would I wanna do more school shit?!"[/color] Jaime countered, the corners of his mouth curling upward. Despite the fact that he felt like his brain had been put through a blender, he couldn't help but smile. Paco's energy levels had a habit of dragging up his own no matter the occasion. "We got to go to Washington D.C, man! How is that not cool? You can't tell me it isn't cool." [color=7ea7d8]"Ohh yeah. Nothing's cooler than a bunch of old guys passing parking laws. Real badass vacation destination, ya doofus."[/color] Brenda was the only one in the room not laughing. She had a worried look on her face, her gaze bouncing between Jaime and Paco as the gears spun in the back of her mind. Jaime's expression fell once more when he noticed. [color=7ea7d8]"Hey, what's wrong?"[/color] He asked, obviously concerned. "So you don't remember anything that happened after that? Anything at all?" She asked, her teeth sinking into her lower lip. He shrugged his shoulders. [color=7ea7d8]"I mean, I had this...[i]loco[/i] dream while I was out, but-"[/color] "Dream? What'd you dream about?" She quickly interjected, cutting him off before he could brush passed it. [color=7ea7d8]"It's stupid and unimportant-"[/color] "It's really, [i]really[/i] not." Reyes felt that panic bubbling up in his stomach as he recalled the 'dream'- nightmare felt more fitting. It had felt so visceral. Even now, just thinking back on it, it was more like a memory than anything his imagination had conjured. But that didn't make any sense; it couldn't have been real. [color=7ea7d8]"Well, I was...God, okay. I was on this weird alien planet, but I was also...back home, at the fall festival we went to a few weeks ago. Everything was on fire, even the ocean. And I was wearing this...weird armor-"[/color] "Ohhh...Oh man.." Paco let out a deep sigh, sinking further down his chair like he was trying to find a way to hide inside of it's thin, metal frame. [color=7ea7d8]"What? It- it was just a dream."[/color] But it hadn't felt like one. He didn't know what it was like to stab someone, yet when he was tearing into those crazy...alien zombie looking things...Jaime couldn't imagine it would've felt any different in real life than it had then. He'd never felt anything in a dream before. He'd never smelled anything, either. But, the bodies... There was a sharp, aching pain in the front of his skull that tore him out of the memory, his hand running up to grasp his head. "Are you alright?" Paco nearly leapt out of his seat, his arms resting on the side of the medical bed as he leaned in to examine Jaime's forehead. [color=7ea7d8]"Yeah, yeah. Just a headache. I'm fine. Where are we, by the way? Is this a hospital?"[/color] It looked far too small to be any hospital room that Reyes had ever seen. Maybe it was an emergency clinic near the museum or something. [color=7ea7d8]"And what in the hell happened to me? Why do I feel like I got hit by a truck?"[/color] Both Paco and Brenda shot each other a look, neither of them speaking up to answer the question their friend posed. "Maybe you should take a shower first. We'll try to explain it to you afterward. If you're okay to stand." Brenda started first, reluctant and unsure of herself- two traits that Jaime would never associate with Brenda even on her worst days. Something was wrong. [i]Way[/i] wrong. "He should be good." Paco nodded. "The doctor said there shouldn't be anything too wrong with him physically, just that the meds would mess with his head for awhile." Reyes nodded slowly. [color=7ea7d8]"Right...Okay."[/color] He wasn't sure about waiting to hear about whatever terrible thing had befallen him, but neither of his friends looked like they were going to budge on it any time soon. [color=7ea7d8]"So where's this shower you're both so eager to put me in?"[/color] The door slid open in the same moment he asked, the answer coming from beyond it's threshold from a voice Jaime only tangibly recognized as familiar. [color=pink]"Why don't I show you the way?"[/color] An old man, perhaps in his seventies, was sitting in the doorway with an unsettling smirk crossing his wrinkled, liver-spot-stained visage. He was confined to a wheelchair, yet he held an aura around him that sent a shiver running down Reyes's spine. [color=pink]"My name is Doctor Caulder. It's nice to finally speak to you, Jaime."[/color] He couldn't explain it, but Jaime felt a sudden, violent urge to lunge from that bed and wrap his hands around the old man's scrawny throat.