Gods and Monsters [cs: torture and murder and scary stuff]

[beetlebutt]

Jaime Reyes was standing on a street in El Paso, looking very confused, and talking to himself. Well, at least it looked like he was talking to himself. Really, he was talking to the scarab, because the two of them were trying to figure out what the heck had just happened. The world had blurred, Jaime had passed out and now...

"This is so not El Paso."

Now he was in a place that was home and yet not home.

|T L[][]KS \|/E|RD. \|/HERE'S THE PUTT-PUTT?

"Exactly. And that - what is that? That building wasn't there yesterday. Neither was that bank building. And where's the El Diablo?"

/-\LTERN/-\TE D|/|\ENS|[]N?

"Are your sensors picking up anything weird?"

...SENS[]RS /-\RE |N[]PER/-\T|[]N/-\L.

After doing a systems check, the scarab trilled a little wordless cry of alarm.

"What's wrong?"

/|\UTIPLE SYSTEMS |N[]PER/-\T|[]N/-\L. []NLY B/-\S|C L|FE SUPP[]RT, B/-\SIC TR/-\NSF[]O/|\/-\T|[]N /-\B|L|T|ES, /-\ND C[]/|\/|\S /-\V/-\|L/-\BLE. D|/-\GN[]ST|CS UN/-\BLE TO DETER/|\INE WHY.

"Whoa, whoa, okay, calm down, you're kinda panicking. Stop with the brain klaxons, okay?"

|'/|\ RUNN|NG BL|ND. Y[]U C/-\LM D[]WN!

"I know this is freaky, and you're not used to being blind like this, but you're still conscious and I'm still conscious, and we're not fighting an evil death satellite or, I don't know, being shot at by aliens. We'll figure this out, okay? Just keep a cool head."

The response was a very surly, | D[]N'T H/-\VE /-\ HE/-\D.

Jaime rolled his eyes. "You know what I meant, Mr. Literal. Look, we'll figure this out, okay?"

In fact, maybe he could just talk to someone and get some answers. Some teenagers ran down the street towards him.

"Hey! Very, very lost superhero here," he said, waving them down. "Any chance you could -"

They didn't notice. In fact, with a feeling like cold mist, they ran right through him. Jaime froze up after they did, expression stricken.

"Okay, we're a ghost or something and no one can see, hear, or touch us. Time to panic."

| T[]LD Y[]U!

Comments

[putyouinstitches]

"God can't hear you my little baby bug~"

The voice came from behind him and though she lurked in the shadows her high pitched voice was like needles in his ears and the scratching and scraping of something heavy and metal like a knife being sharpened began echoing across the open concrete floor.

"Which is good because I like my play things NICE and LOUD!"

The scraping stopped as she stepped out of the shadows and swung a sledge hammer for his side, as a way of introducing herself.

[beetlebutt]

Chills ran up and down his spine at the sound of the scraping metal but before he had a chance to respond or ask questions or do anything, the blow to his side knocked him for a loop. The armor protected him but it could only do so much. Just because it managed to protect his body from things like, say, internal bleeding, didn't mean it could protect him from everything, especially while damaged. So that? That hurt. That was a broken rib or two there. "Yeeeeargh!" His body swayed back and forth, painfully yanking at his already sore shoulders.

[putyouinstitches]

"Yeeeeargh?" She repeated and pouted taking a hand to spin him around making sure to grab at him by his injured side.

"What the heck kind of greeting scream is Yeeeargh!? Come on you're gonna have to do better then that! Maybe I'm just not using the right tool huh?"

Letting the handle of the hammer fall to the ground she produced a pair of sisscors bringing them up to his face and tapping the point on his cheek.

"Are those lenses in your eyes really strong? Might be interesting to see those pretty eyes with some shiny glass bits in them!"

The grotesque and grinning face of a makeup and stitched up woman was grinning at him wildly with her eyes wide to the point they looked like they might fall out of her head at any moment.

[beetlebutt]

"Harley Quinn?" he gasped out, still taking shuddery breaths because of the pain in his side. Except he'd seen her on, like, the news and stuff and she looked way less...crazy on the news? (Somehow?) Basically, right now she looked even more unhinged than usual and was apparently running around in her underwear. He was pretty sure that the Harley Quinn he'd seen on TV wasn't this far gone, even if she was pretty far gone. The film over his eyes was definitely strong enough to withstand scissors but he wasn't taking any chances, so he squinted his eyes almost-shut to make it harder for her to stab him and craned his neck to get his face away from her. He didn't want to shut them entirely. Otherwise, he wouldn't know what was coming next. "Why am I here? Where am I? And why are you acting, like, ten times crazier than you are even in the news and stuff?!" he asked, voice panicked. He was already pretty sure he was in some kind of alternate dimension, but, he didn't really know what was happening. And if he could get her to pause and answer some questions, it'd give him a little time to figure a way out of this. "And who was that fire chick?"

[putyouinstitches]

She let out a squeal that sounded more like an angry cat then anything and drew the blades back from his face.

"Aw you've heard of me? That's so cool! I don't know anything about you except what Princess bossy pants told me!" She cackled and then with surprising strength brought the closed scissors down on his shoulder where she thought she might have seen a joint in the armor. Even if the armor held firm the strike would send him swinging again as she laughed.

"I dunno what kinda Harley Quinn YOU'VE been hearing about. But I'm as crazy now as I ever was!"

She grabbed hold of him so he would stop spinning and she barred her teeth at him in a grin.

"Or is this what you would call perfectly healthy behavior where you come from?"

Without waiting for an answer she shoved him once more to spin him as she sought out her next weapon.

[beetlebutt]

"Nngh!" Jaime cried out when she jammed the scissors into his shoulder, partly because that was a weak point in the armor, so even though it didn't puncture through it still hurt, and partly because it make him swing some more when his shoulders were already wrecked. "Why are you doing this?" He was perilously close to crying right now. This was some terrifying crap. He could hear the scarab in the back of his head, trying to soothe him, trying to tell him it would figure out something, that it was trying to self-repair, but he could barely hear it over his own panic and underneath the attempts at comfort, he could still feel the fine edge of the scarab's fear as well. "I don't understand - I don't even know where I am. Why are you doing this?"

[putyouinstitches]

"Why does anyone do anything?" She answered back unhelpfully and the buzz of a power drill echoed across the warehouse. She held it in one hand while a marker in her other hand was used to make X's on his shoulders, knees, neck and a line down his back.

"There we go. Gotta remind myself where to put the wires and things so you don't fall over like my first little brother." She tossed the marker aside. "Oh that's right! I haven't introduced you!"

Clapping her hands twice a light flicked on revealing a scene of horror right out of a slasher movie. A family of four and a half were lounging on sofas and in a rocking chair. Five people who Harley had very clearly killed and stuffed into life sized dolls with garish grins being held up with staples and nails. On the floor a little sister sat clutching a clown doll while half of what used to be a little boy was sitting next to her with a dinosaur toy. His other half had gone missing and if Jaime looked close enough he could see the joints on the boy were coming apart like a well worn rag doll.

"I always wanted a big family!" She sighed and then proceeded to drive the drill into the back of Jaime's knee.

[beetlebutt]

The sight brought tears to Jaime's eyes and almost brought up his lunch from his stomach. For a moment, he was frozen with that horror and the cold he felt seemed to freeze all the blood in his veins, keeping him immobile. The sound of the drill cut through his uncomprehending horror, as he imagined her hurting those poor people the same way she was trying to hurt him now. The ice melted and fire took its place, as rage consumed him. The drill bit didn't go through the armor easily, but in time it might. Right now it was in deep enough for him to actually do something about what she was doing. "¡Maldito seas! Monster!" he cried out, suddenly thrashing, twisting his body. The sudden jerking motion broke the drill bit. Now that he'd seen what she had done to innocent people, he was not going to make this easy for her. He was not going to let the fear make him freeze.

[putyouinstitches]

Harley pouted and brought the broke drill up to look at the busted bit before tossing it at his head.

"Don't you try and sweet talk your way out of this one you cute little chimichanga! This is just the foreplay!"

Swaggering out of sight for a moment she would stay behind him so he couldn't try to dodge the next strike. A two handed sledge hammer aimed with surprising accuracy for someone Harley's size.

"Of course if you wanna keep using those sexy Spanish words, I won't twist your leg about it!"

She then slammed the head of the hammer into the same knee where half her drill bit was still residing.

[beetlebutt]

Joints were weaker spots in the armor, the armor was weaker than usual, and this Harley seemed strong enough to be superhuman, given how she kept wielding that sledgehammer. That meant the armor cracked under the pressure. Blue blood started running down the back of his leg. Now that was pain. The only time he'd felt more pain was when he'd been tortured by Max Lord and that had been general electric agony all over. This was a different kind of pain, one that screamed a warning in the back of his head to remind him that this pain meant something was actually broken and that he'd have trouble fighting or running away. So he screamed. And he cried, tears pouring down his face. And he cursed in a mix of English and Spanish, saying things he'd never say around his mother. He was pretty sure she'd forgive him for it just this once. The scarab trilled that it was working on something but Jaime knew he didn't have much longer before he'd be too injured to fight back or escape, especially if she was going for all the joints she'd marked. He had to find his opening and then run to buy the scarab more time. Stop. Panicking. Fight the fear, tune out the pain. You're thinking like a scared kid - albeit one with really, really good reason to be scared - but you need to start thinking like a Blue Beetle. You've been hurt like this before and powerless like this before and you got through. C'mon, think back to Mr. Kord's notes. What was it one of his notes said? 'If you have nothing to work with make the enemy work for you.' What do I need right now? What can I do or say to make her give it to me? Mobility was the most important thing. If he could move, he could run or fight. Run. Preferably run. He'd broken the drill since she seemed to have no other drill bits and the hammer would bludgeon him but not get the armor off. Judging from the other implements available, that left very few that she could use to try to get him free of the armor. One that potentially could was the chainsaw. The chainsaw that could also cut through his leg bonds if he caught it at the right angle. If he could get her to pick it up and kicked it the right way... "What you're doing is no worse than paper cuts. Just flesh wounds." Channeled some Monty Python there... "You can pick at it all you want but you won't get through the armor," he challenged her. "Not all the way. You may as well give up. Nothing you have can cut through it." Please take the bait, please take the bait, siendo Dios servido, let this be a gullible bad guy, let me have this one...

[putyouinstitches]

There was a primal, luxurious moan from Harley when he screamed. She was clearly enjoying his pain to lewd, disgusting levels and her pale face was burning with passionate delight that most normal people reserved for things like theme park rides and big summer blockbuster movies.

Still, while she was not as stupid as she looked (Much to everyones surprise) she was an emotional creature and being interrupted from her play by a challenge like that was too much to ignore.

"Oh you think so do you!?" She barked in response dashing out of sight and returning a moment later with what appeared to be a bloody dufflebag.

Digging around inside she produced a long thick and gleaming knife "I got this thing off TV! They showed it cutting through cans without dulling!" She declared proudly before charing him and trying to drive the point of the blade into his armpit.

[beetlebutt]

That did absolutely nothing. It didn't quite have a sharp enough point unlike the screwdriver. He just dangled there, looking smug and defiant and then took advantage of her being closer to spit in her face. "¡Chingate!" That'll get her good and mad. And mad leads to stupid. Mad and stupid enough to maybe want to crack the armor open however she could, as fast as she could. And the fastest way was the chainsaw that might be his salvation. []H H/-\MBURGERS, the scarab chimed in horror when he did it, understanding what Jaime was trying but anxious about the possible consequences anyway. "Doesn't even tickle," he snarled at her.

[putyouinstitches]

She looked shocked, and then brought a hand up to brush the spit from her cheeks looking at it in puzzlement.

Taking the fingers and sucking on them she pouted clearly steaming and stomping back over to the dufflebag.

"I'm gonna have to rip that salesguy a new ass for this. But since you're so damn sure of yourself I'll just have to go to old reliable."

The roar of a chainsaw, right out of a horror movie and the slender blond girl spun around swinging it wildly and rushing her target.

[beetlebutt]

Annnd stupid is achieved. Get ready to move, he thought at Khaji Da. RE/-\DY T[] R[]LL. As she charged at him Jaime affected a horrified expression on his face, the expression of a doomed kid only just realizing his terrible mistake, so she didn't suspect anything. He held it right until the last second and then he gritted his teeth and it instantly changed to something more focused and ferocious. Maybe the suit had less integrity, maybe it was weaker and slower than it usually was, but he was still pretty fast. So he twisted his body, kicking the chainsaw to get it at the angle he needed, grimacing at the agonizing jolt of pain that zinged through his injured leg. Before she could recover, he angled his feet so the chainsaw cut through the bonds tying and taping his feet together. Briefly, it caught a bad angle and grinded against armor on his leg, but luckily it wasn't long enough to break through the armor, just enough to chisel some of it off. Then he twisted his body again to kick Harley in the face with his good leg as hard as he could. It was a good kick with a lot of oomph behind it, just like he'd been taught. Thank you, Wonder Girl. Then he swung his body up so he could entangle his good leg in the chain holding him, Cirque du Soleil style, getting him higher up and away from Harley and giving him enough leverage so he could lift his bound wrists off the hook the handcuffs were hanging on. And thank you, Robin. He hoped he could survive this to thank them both in person for the training they'd given him at Titans Tower. It was the only reason he had a chance. While Harley was still reeling from the kick to the face, he landed on the ground, staggering because of his injured leg. He couldn't stop himself from crying out in pain. But at least he was down. At least his feet were free. At least he had a teeny tiny head start. He booked it towards a nearby door, as fast as he could limp, which, mercifully, was still pretty fast because of the suit. A pained limp in the suit covered as much ground as a light jog without it. He pushed his way through some doors into what looked like a kitchen, jammed a nearby broken pipe through the door handles, and shoved over what looked like an industrial freezer in front of it all for good measure. The moment he did, the freezer door came slightly ajar and blood started oozing onto the floor. "Oh God," he said in a near sob. It was back to the horror again. He could be brave enough for himself, defiant for himself, but everything he saw in this place that made it clear what had been done to other people was destroying all of that composure. It was making everything hazy. And the blood loss probably wasn't helpiug. JA|ME/H[]ST-FR|END, Y[]U H/-\VE T[] KEEP M[]V|NG. SU|T FUNCT|ONS ST|LL D[]WN. REPA|R|NG C[]MMS F|RST. []THER FUNCT|[]NS W|LL T/-\KE T|ME "Comms, yeah," Jaime said distantly, still staring at the blood oozing out of the freezer. Comms made sense. If there was anyone out there that could help him, anyone at all, that might be his best chance. Comms. Comms first."I - I -" M[]VE! Khaji Da commanded, finally dragging Jaime out of his stupor, and he turned around to stagger his way through a large kitchen.

[putyouinstitches]

Unfortunately for Jaime, the freezer was not the worst of sights in this industrial kitchen area. That award could go to any number of things such as the sink that was full of blood and bugs that were apparently all too happy to crawl around and drink the drying juices of Harley's victims.

Or perhaps the most distressing sight would be the various bodies hanging from hooks like fish waiting to be cleaned. Some of them were still wearing the clothes they were killed in, some weren't. Some were still completely in tact.

And some simply weren't.

The pieces of those who were missing body parts appeared to be spread out on a steal table as if she was trying to put together a puzzle using different pieces from different people. She had about half a human being on the table, not yet assembled. If Jaime was unfortunate enough to look down when he felt something underfoot he would see that he'd just stepped on some woman's hand that had fallen off the table.

A pair of double doors on the other side of the room, loading bay doors for delivery trucks from the looks of it. There was also a door to the far corner labeled as a Fire escape. Would the alarm still sound if he used it?

Near the fire exit were some freezer doors with glass windows. Given everything else he had seen he probably didn't want to go in there unless he had to, but the only other option was through a pair of swinging half doors that led to some kind of lounge that might have been where she pilfered the furniture from for her "Family" room.

[beetlebutt]

A charnel house. Like the setting in a horror video game but it was real. It was real. These had really been people and - - and he just stepped on a hand. Jaime had to clamp a hand over his mouth to contain the high-pitched squeal of horror and distress he wanted to make over the disgusting sights in the kitchen. Then he had to hold it there to keep in the screaming that threatened to come after. Then he had to remove it as he staggered two steps and retched on the floor. "Oh God oh God oh God -" In the room behind him, he could hear the sound of the chainsaw revving. It kept him moving forward, limping step after step, but very few people could have looked on this and been unaffected and Jaime Reyes was not one of them. J/-\|ME, Y[]U /-\RE G[]|NG |NT[] PSYCH[]L[]G}C/-\L SH[]CK. | W|LL T/-\KE []VER. | W|LL F[]LL[]W Y[]UR D|RECT|[]NS and G|VE B/-\CK C[]NTR[]L |F WE MUST F|GHT. "Okay," Jaime gasped out faintly. "Okay." The suit locked up and then he felt it moving again but now he was just a passenger in it. It hurt to be moved that way, with the state of his leg, but the scarab didn't overexert it any more than Jaime would have. Khaji Da trilled at him to focus on the exits, not on everything else, focus on a possible way out. "The loading bay doors," he croaked out and the scarab started to motor them there. The fire exit seemed too...too easy. She seemed like the kind of person that wouldn't have minded if her prey occasionally made a run for it and someone as crazy as her had possibly rigged up the very obvious exit with something bad. He couldn't risk it. So he went for the bay doors first and if he couldn't get through those, he planned to try the half doors next. Khaji Da kept them both moving, and that meant that Jaime didn't have to devote himself so feverishly to it, it meant his mind had time to think of other things and the only thing it seemed able to think of was a psalm he'd heard in church. Just one psalm. Just one part of one psalm. Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil: for thou art with me; thy rod and thy staff they comfort me... Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil: for thou art with me; thy rod and thy staff they comfort me... Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil: for thou art with me; thy rod and thy staff they comfort me... Over and over and over and over.

[putyouinstitches]

The loading bay doors were stiff and heavy but with a little grit he could tug them open revealing...the back of a truck.

An eighteen wheeler apparently with stacks of plastic containers labeled for biohazards. Red plastic bags peeked out from some of the open containers closest to him while the rest were stacked near the front. Coils of rope and spatters of blood were a good indication that she had been using this to transport her victims.

The screech of metal on metal warned him the chainsaw was working through the barricade he had put on the door. He had maybe two minutes to hide or go for the other doors...or there was a hatch on roof the storage section of the truck.

[beetlebutt]

At this point, Khaji Da wasn't capable of words anymore, either. No, he just let out a little mental screech that matched the way Jaime wanted to scream but couldn't seem to. "The hatch," Jaime said weakly, his voice almost a whisper. It meant standing on boxes of - of - The scarab forced the suit to start climbing. Jaime gritted his teeth together to keep himself from screaming as he bent his injured leg to do it. Thankfully the suit itself lent a little bit of bracing to his left knee that he needed because otherwise it would've just collapsed under him. D[]N'T L[][]K |NT[] THE B[]XES, the scarab chided, even forcing the suit to make it so Jaime could only crane his neck up. They managed to open the hatch and climb through, closing it again behind them in the hopes she didn't realize it was how they left. The scarab dragged them across the roof of the trailer, and used the sloping carriage as a step down to the ground. It still hurt when they slid their way down and landed and Jaime had to suppress a scream so Harley didn't investigate outside. Outside there was...nothing. No houses in sight, just a long empty road that seemed to go up into some mountains and down off into a forest. There were only woods and fields as far as the eye could see. "Woods," he said to the scarab and they made their way for the tree line. As they did, Jaime grasped desperately at the device that he was pretty sure was responsible for limiting the suit but it was stuck fast in the armor and no amount of prying was going to get it out. "The comms, are they up yet?" ESTIM/-\TED T|ME: FIVE M|NUTES. "A lot can happen in five minutes. Now that we're out, give me control again. Focus on repairing them." The suit stopped motoring along on its own and Jaime took over, struggling towards the tree line. NEW ESTIM/-\TED T|ME: TW[] M|NUTES. ALM[]ST THERE...

[putyouinstitches]

He made it as far as the trees....when the sound of the chainsaw suddenly roared through the air.

Sprinting across the field at an inhuman speed she was swinging the chainsaw with madness in her eyes and a grin on her face.

"Oh I'm a lumberjill and I'm OK! I kill all night and I creep all day! I cut down trees! I eat my toys, I like to listen to screams for hours! I wish you'd come to play with me I'll give you lots of scars!"

The song barely rhymed but by the time she had finished she was slicing through trees with ridiculous ease as she chased after him losing sight of him among the wildlife.

[beetlebutt]

The scarab had gotten comms up and he'd gotten a message out and a quick exchange only moments before she came rampaging out after him. So much for sneaking out without being seen. He couldn't move fast enough to really escape her, which meant that despite his best efforts to run through the forest and stay away from her, she eventually found him. "She found me!" he called into the comms and then he turned to face her because if he kept trying to run, she'd just cut him down. He had to try to injure her again, buy himself some time to get lost in the woods.

[putyouinstitches]

"George George, George of the jungle lives a life that's free!"

She continued singing but the trees stopped falling. She had vanished between them and her singing and the roar of the chainsaw seemed to echo all around the area bouncing off the woods.

"WATCH OUT FOR THAT TREE!"

The tree in question was a mighty redwood. It normally took several professionals to take down such a legendary tree. For Harley and her power enhanced chainsaw it took seconds.

[beetlebutt]

Jaime dove out of the way just in time but rolling like that pretty much devastated his injured leg. Which left him on all fours on the forest floor, crying out in pain, totally at her mercy. He was not going to win this fight, he knew. They'd told him they were coming for him, but he was pretty sure they wouldn't come fast enough. That changed things, the idea that he was going to die. Accepting it. That changed things. So, he was probably going to die. Fine. He had to see if he could take her out with him. Not kill her, as much as he wanted to, but at least knock her out so whoever was coming for him could keep her from hurting anyone else. That was why, as she approached, he dove at her legs with a loud cry, since he was already on the ground. He tried to knock her over, knowing that the thick back of the suit would be harder to cut through than the other parts of the armor. He was probably going to be fatally injured anyway, but maybe he'd at least get a few hits in. "Murderer!" he cried out shrilly. "You want to kill me, fine, but I'm stopping you from killing anyone else!

[putyouinstitches]

"Wha?!" She let out a startled cry as he put up more of a fight then she'd expected.

Her chainsaw came down hard on his back and shoulder sending sparks flying as metal hit metal and the engine roared and strained to slice through something with more will to live then a tree.

Thrown off balance she wobbled and flopped backwards dropping her chainsaw which bounced off his back and spun out of control through the grass and bushes scattering dirt and branches over them in the process.

[beetlebutt]

The chainsaw did manage to cut through his armor and bite into his shoulder. As he screamed, he felt blood run under the armor and saw it flow out overtop. He wasn't sure if it was fatal or not. That was a lot of blood but he remembered Mrs. Stutterbee from his 9th grade biology class, who was a former forensics examiner, saying one time that human beings had an awful lot of blood to lose and that there'd been times she'd been on site somewhere and the scene had been covered with it even though the person survived. Regardless of whether it was fatal or not, his struggling meant the chainsaw fell away. He managed to straddle Harley and Captain Kirk it a a bit, hitting her with both of his handcuffed hands clasped together in hard two-handed strikes, trying to knock her out. But he was way weaker than usual and he was losing feeling in the arm that was on the same side as the shoulder she cut. The two-handed punches would hurt but it'd take quite a few of them to knock her out.

[putyouinstitches]

Each slam of his fists on her soft skin sounded thick and heavy like a steak slapping on a cutting board. It wasn't the same sound you heard in movies, but of course Beetle had been around enough to know the sound well enough.

Just like he probably knew right away what the sound of a broken nose was. Blood gushed from her smashed snout as she groaned and her eyes rolled up in her head exposing the whites in a bloodshot creepy way.

Her body went limp, and other then a very faint breathing she seemed for all intents and purposes to have been taken out.

White makeup and blood smeared on his hands from where he had struck her again and again.