Curiouser and curiouser [ Semi-open]

[azulescarabajo]

Characters: Jaime Reyes, Cassie Lang, other young super-types.
Setting/Location: The main street of District One
Date & Time: RIGHT NOW
Warnings: None
Summary: Jaime meets up with Cassie and some other young heroing types. Open to Young Avengers and other teen super-heroes.

Comments

[azulescarabajo]

"I...don't know, honestly. I haven't really tried." Well, that just confirmed what a bad liar he was. Hopefully he wouldn't have to deny anything directly any time soon.

"I'm not a very good liar." He laughed nervously. "And my powers aren't really mine, they come from--" He goes silent and waves his free hand as if hearing someone else speak.

"I know, I know! I'm getting to you. Sheesh." He sighed and shook his head.

"Anyway. They come from Khaji Da. The scarab. He's basically an alien bug robot that's grafted to my spine. He lets me do..." He paused again as alien armor suddenly encased the young man.



"...this. I've got a pretty big arsenal in here, some of it pretty serious. And it normally enhances my strength and lets me fly. But Khaji says not all of the systems are working properly for some reason. Something is dampening them." He shrugged.

"I'm called Blue Beetle back home."

[littlestlang]

"I can see why," Cassie couldn't help staring a little. It was a little like watching Iron Man suit up - or Iron Lad, a thought which she squashed determinedly for now - except, obviously, for the bug theme. And apparently the sentience. She knelt down to examine the armor covering his wrist with interest. "Wow. He - Khaji, I mean - talks to you? Even though he's being powered down?"

[azulescarabajo]

"That's where it gets a bit complicated. He's literally a little robot bug attached to my spine. See, uh, Khaji Da was originally built by the Reach. Those aliens I told you about on the...phone or whatever. And he was originally designed to grant someone these powers and eventually override their mind with Reach programming, take over and use them to take over their planet for the Reach. But because I found him separated from his database, he didn't have the programming to override my brain with. And on top of that he was exposed to magical energies and that changed him. He was able to break free from his programming, with a little help from me and that magic. He didn't want to take over the planet any more. And so we took down the Reach when they showed up." Long story made fairly short there, Cassie.

"So, yeah. He's there. He's intelligent. He talks to me. And he makes suggestions about how to deal with situations, though he does tend towards overkill. I have to rein him in a bit sometimes. But he's a good friend."

[littlestlang]

"That's amazing," Cassie grinned - a little sheepishly, since she was offering the armor a little wave at the same time on the offchance it could see as well as hear. "You must be relieved that he's here with you."

Speaking of which, she realised that by this point the others might have started looking for her in earnest. A quick check of the street visible from the mouth of the alley didn't magically cause them to appear, so she turned back to Jaime, "My friends are probably close by, if you want to meet them."

[azulescarabajo]

"You have no idea. If I popped into some crazy other world without Khaji Da, then I'd be worried." He grinned.

"Sure. Uh. Lemme turn this off first." The concentrated a moment and the armor disappeared as rapidly as it had come. Jaime shivered and shook his head.

"It gets easier, but I don't think it'll ever stop feeling weird."

[littlestlang]

Being around Jonas and Teddy for so long meant that she no longer asked where the clothes replacing the armor came from; she'd long since realised that nine times out of ten she really didn't want to know. So instead, she gave him a vaguely sympathetic-if-amused look and began using her new line of sight to look for the others.

"Do you mind if they know your identity?" She assumed he didn't, but it didn't hurt to check. Secret identities were complicated things. "You don't have to tell them if you don't want to, but if we're going to be here for a while it might be easier."

[azulescarabajo]

In this case, Cassie is very right. She really, really doesn't want to know where the clothes come from. Seriously.

"It'll probably be way easier if they do know. I'd just like to try and keep it quiet, outside of, you know people who need to know. Besides, you guys aren't from my world so it's not like you can run off to the Daily Planet and spill everything you know about me." He grinned.

/tl;drs

[magiclad]

To be entirely honest, and despite all protestations to the contrary, Billy was not feeling that awesome about his cape right now. Wearing a big red sheet seemed a lot less cool when you couldn't will it to billow dramatically behind you and other people's insistence that it looked a bit stupid didn't dwindle to insignificance next to the fact of your phenomenal cosmic powers.

But, on the bright side, it was pretty conspicuous. Admittedly, so far that hadn't come in particularly handy, since he'd bumped into Teddy almost as soon as he'd left the inn - apparently they hadn't been as far apart as he'd assumed. But there was still no sign of Cassie, and, considering Billy was increasingly concerned that they might have passed her already and just not seen her, what with her being tiny and everything - so, really, with that in mind, it was kind of reassuring to have the cape trailing behind him like a big red ~~HEY GUYS YOUNG AVENGERS HERE~~ banner. Even if it was making him feel a bit like he was five years old and tying a towel around his shoulders or something.

He'd just been about to suggest that they turn round and try going back the way they came when a familiar, if tiny, outfit caught his attention off to the side of the street. A little higher up than he'd expected, and he didn't know the guy whose hands she was standing on, but definitely Cassie - he caught Teddy's wrist for a moment to steer him over and raised his other hand to wave. "Hey! Cassie!"

[oopsalienprince]

Finding Billy quickly had been a stroke of very good luck that Teddy was hoping would continue, because losing a friend that was stuck in a somewhat difficult state really wasn't on the agenda. He had welcomed Billy and his big red bedsheet quite happily, but the lack of success in locating Cassie was starting to worry him a little. He knew that Cassie could look after herself, but this was usually when she was able to change her size as much as she wanted. The whole "nerfed", as Billy put it, powers deal was really weird as it was without the slightly unnerving prospect of Cassie being liable to be squished at any given point.

Unless she was standing on someone's palm, as she was when Billy pointed out her location. Teddy felt a disctint wave of relief wash over him, allowing Billy to give him a tug in the right direction and letting the growing tension in his shoulders disappear. "Cass! There you are - you okay?" He gave the other guy a smile, incidentally remaining unaware for a moment that this was Jaime.

[littlestlang]

"I'm guesing that's like the Daily Bugle-" Cassie began, when a familiar flash of red interrupted her. She would be quite ready to agree with Billy about nearly everything he'd just thought about the problems inherent in cape-wearing, but there was really no denying that it made an effective flag.

Having spotted them a few moments before Billy waved, she was waving back as much as she could without knocking herself off Jaime's hand before either of the boys had opened their mouths to call greetings.

"I'm okay," she confirmed cheerfully, once they'd gotten close enough to hear her, the concern that hadn't been alleviated by meeting Jaime easily dismissed now that she was amongst her friends too. It wasn't like her problem was life-threatening or dangerous, provided she paid attention to where she was going. "What about you guys?"

[azulescarabajo]

Jaime nodded at the two new arrivals.

"Er, hi." He raised one hand in greeting, keeping the other with Cassie close to his chest.

"You must be the two Cassie was talking about. I'm Jaime."

[magiclad]

"Yeah, we're fine. I'm fine, anyway." He glanced at Teddy, who he was more or less sure was fine - power failure or no, he couldn't be worse off than Cassie was. At least he was the right size. "A little less magic than I'd like to be, but, uh. You know." Billy paused for a second to look at Jaime in a have-I-just-eaten-my-own-shoe sort of way, and then back at Cassie. "Can I say that in front of him? -- I can say that in front of you, right?"

[hold_aces]

"Guys-!" Tommy's entrances were definitely less grand without the speed. Coming to a stop at the edge of the group he threw a curious, critical glance at Jaime before ignoring him and turning his attention to their youngest, and at the moment definitely the smallest, member of their team.

"... what's with the Barbie doll look, Stature? And if we're gonna be battle planning, I vote for doing it in the general vicinity of food."

[oopsalienprince]

"I'm good, but changing's not really happening." He pointed up to his eyes as he spoke, and for about five seconds they turned brown before changing back to blue once again. His smile was a little strained. "Jaime?" He brightened a bit, though, also lifting a hand in greeting. "We talked earlier - Teddy." He gave both Cassie and Billy a slightly apologetic look; at the time it hadn't seemed necessarily to give out his codename.

He might have gone on had Tommy not arrived at that point, taking note of the lack of speed. "She's stuck," he said, the slightly uncomfortable expression returning to his face. "Our powers have all gone weird. Guessing your's have too, seeing as you're not showing up with a cloud of dust trailing after you."

[littlestlang]

"Jaime's pretty much one of us," she said, to forestall any more confusion. "But from another universe like- thanks, Speed." Her exasperation was spoiled slightly by her grin, but it hadn't been that committed an expression to start with. She nodded to confirm Teddy's explanation, and added "It's not just us, either, whether that's a good thing or not. But food sounds good."

[azulescarabajo]

"You can say whatever you want about magic in front of me. My girlfriend works with it a lot. Like, really a lot. And good to meet you in person, Teddy." Jaime smiled and offered a hand to the new arrivals for a handshake or a brofist or however they greeted each other in this other universe.

"Just call me Jaime when we're all...normal. But when we do the hero-ing thing, I'm called Blue Beetle." He glanced over at Cassie.

"Actually, yeah. Food sounds really good."