[center][color=#4eacd5][h1]The Blue Beetle[/h1][/color][/center] [table][row][/row][row][cell][img]https://i.imgur.com/EsPqxfN.png[/img] [center][color=#2e2c2c]xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx[/color][/center] [color=#4eacd5][sub][b]I S S U E[/b][/sub][/color][hr][sub]#1: First Contact VI[/sub] [color=#4eacd5][sub][b]L O C A T I O N[/b][/sub][/color][hr][sub]Bayonne, New Jersey. 12:20 AM[/sub] [color=#4eacd5][sub][b]T A G S[/b][/sub][/color][hr][sub][@Hero][@DocTachyon][/sub][/cell][cell][indent] [color=4eacd5]"I'm really trying not to!"[/color] It was about all Jaime could do to reassure the newcomer that he didn't intend to blast him with whatever the heck the Scarab had just conjured up. Of course, it was debatable how much that mattered when the little blue bug in his spine [i]really[/i] wanted to smoke whoever this guy was. He could practically feel the Scarab trying to force his hand back into position, like a soreness in your muscle that you really wanted to stretch out and relieve. This must have been what people meant by itchy trigger finger... Although he wasn't exactly sure he felt his fingers anymore. Or could even move them, what with the cannon stuck on his arm like this. It was a crying shame he was so preoccupied with suppressing the murderous desires of a machine, too. Blockades? Systems? Corps of aliens? He'd always thought they could be a bit hokey, but tonight was honestly shaping up like an episode of Trek! If he hadn't seen it all—[i]was[/i] seeing it all—unfold before him, he wouldn't have believed it. But here he was, listening to two flying aliens talk about a crash landing like it was some kind of parking violation. [code]<>[/code] A parking violation that seemed like it was about to get even more interesting. Especially on account of that word popping up again—Vega. It seemed like the newcomers were friends of the orange girl. [color=4eacd5]"Not to interrupt, but-"[/color] It seemed his words would have fallen on deaf ears regardless. The girl had already spotted the group descended upon them, and before he knew it she had floated her way over to a nearby light post and was wrenching it from the ground like it was a particularly annoying weed. Then she soared into the sky with a Spanish battle cry, of all things. He wasn't sure which one of those was more terrifying. [color=4eacd5]"Right. Not friends of hers, I guess."[/color] [code]<>[/code] [color=4eacd5]"Thanks, buddy."[/color] Jaime wasn't sure whether or not he was even qualified to intervene in this stuff. But he definitely knew he couldn't sit back and let a girl fight off a dozen alien thugs. If the suit was so keen on fighting with this Lantern fella, maybe it would be keen on throwing down with a different kind of green guy. [code]<>[/code] [color=4eacd5]"The Lantern isn't the slaver here, now is he? Why don't you do something heroic for once and help me save the girl?"[/color] [code]<>[/code] It didn't seem like he was getting through to it. But that last bit, that gave him an idea. A stupid idea, but an idea! If it was concerned this Lantern guy was a risk to his life, then all Jaime had to do was convince he Scarab these Gorda-whosits were a bigger threat. While the girl was busying thwacking one of the slavers into the bay like a baseball, the wings of the Scarab unfurled with a hiss. With a low hum, the suit's boosters came to life, and half a second later he was hurdling through the sky, racing to join up with the redhead. [color=4eacd5]"Think you need any he- Look out!"[/color] Even when he was working against its will, it seemed the Scarab was incapable of ignoring threats. In this case, the little 'projectile incoming' indicator that popped up a second before one of the flying Gordanians shot off a beam of [i]something[/i] keyed him off to it before the energy had even been discharged. It was half as much misplaced bravado as it was his inability to exactly [i]stop[/i] that saw the armor clad teen blasting his way past the Tamaranean and directly into the path of the bolt. Which—to his surprise—didn't exactly do much. All that remained were a few crackling sparks, which danced along the edge of a large, circular shield that had replaced the cannon on his now raised arm. [color=4eacd5]"That... didn't hurt as much as I thought it would?"[/color] [code]<>[/code] So it seemed. Another few bolts came soaring through the air on the tail of the first one, and each one seemed to dissipate against the surface of the shield, like it was just... absorbing them. Jaime was so emboldened by this new toy, he hardly noticed he had managed to [i]hover[/i]! Instead of relishing in that discovery, he turned his head towards the floating girl and her oversized, improvised club. [color=4eacd5]"[abbr=I'll cover you?]¿Yo te cubro?[/abbr]"[/color] [/indent][/cell][/row][/table]