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

[makeadragonwannaretire]

"Is that so? Have you been dead before then?" That would be a new one on her. Other then the occasional angry spirit back home Azula had never actually encountered a dead person before coming to this world. And the dead people that Kuk had drafted were hardly the best examples.

"I'm not even sure kerflooey is a real word, but I'll let you keep it if it makes you feel better." She remained seated and with one foot pushed the chair across from her back from the table silently inviting him to join her. After all if it was a trap then he was already caught in it. And if it wasn't then there was no harm.

And really at this point what did he have to lose? It's not like anyone around was stopping to pay attention to them.

[beetlebutt]

"Well, I was dead the one time when I was fighting Dr. Polaris, but the scarab resuscitated me with epinephrine and by shocking me like the shocky thingies they have at the hospital. And then I destabilized Dr. Polaris' monopoles and kicked his butt." That was part of why he was pretty sure he wasn't dead. "But I was dead for a few minutes. It's not something you forget." Jaime walked closer, but...no, he wasn't going to sit right across from her. She might have some kinda blasty power, and sitting across from her meant she could get a shot in point-blank. No, he'd sit over here on the railing in front of the restaurant's outdoor seating area, where he could potentially dodge. "What do you want with me?" he asked. "Besides trying to get me to believe lies? Why do you want me to believe lies?"

[makeadragonwannaretire]

Rolling her eyes in a belabored sort of way she sat up straighter and turned to face him, once again looking him up and down.

"Call them lies if you like but it's just a matter of perception. And as for what I want...well that list can go on for a few days so I'll spare you. It's not like you'd be much help with that anyway it's all...old business."

"At least you're smart enough to be cautious. And you sound experienced which is also a nice change of pace. It's almost enough to make you interesting."

Sadly she was on the clock and she could feel the internal timer in her head ticking away. As much as she enjoyed drawing this out she knew it would only last so long. Sooner or later she would have to make her move. But for a moment...she almost felt like her old self again.

Confident, in control.

Not scared.

[beetlebutt]

Jaime eyed her for a moment as she stood up, tall and confident, as she mentioned him being a 'nice change of pace.' Yeah, bad things were happening. "I feel a fight scene coming on, so -" So, taking advantage of the agility his bugsuit gave him, he flipped backwards over the railing and then bounced up and vaulted over a car to put it between them. "Later." He was not stupid. She wasn't offering help and she was talking about him being cautious like it was a good thing and saying he was "a change of pace" which meant...what exactly? It sounded like she fought people or something on a regular basis. That meant it was time to go. He'd find his answers somewhere else.

[makeadragonwannaretire]

Though he probably couldn't see it, she smirked as he flipped away and gracefully moved into a pose she had practiced more times then anyone could count. Another motion and she stepped forward drawing forth the energy from deep inside her and sending a blast of electrical energy from her fingertips blasting the car so it flipped over onto the bug themed hero.

"Not much later." she remarked.

[beetlebutt]

He leaped out of the way, tucking and rolling, only just in time to avoid it. "Scarab, please tell me at least one blasty power is working right now?" N[]PE. S[]L. "Great." He couldn't fly and had hardly any offensive powers, and none of them were distance-based weapons. "No flights, no fights. Just perfect for strange situations with vaguely-intentioned hostile people." Jaime dove behind a dumpster. "Any chance you're planning on at least shouting our your evil reasons for being evil so I know why you're blasting at me?"

[makeadragonwannaretire]

"Is that what people normally do around you? It sounds stupid."

Maybe he wasn't experienced, just living in a world of fools. Another practiced and fluid motion sending a frightening sized ball of blue flame into the dumpster. The impact made the entire container lurch forward. Wisps of superheated flame came licking around the sides to stroke at his armor while Azula shot forward closing the distance in a few bounding leaps till she was standing on the red hot dumpster, smoke rising from her pointed shoes.

[beetlebutt]

The scarab trilled something at him, something that he could use. Maybe he couldn't project it like he usually could, but... "They do it a surprisingly useful amount of the time," Jaime said, touching the dumpster with his hands and doing the electric fingers. It wasn't enough charge to kill, just to hurt and (hopefully) knock her out. (Electricity, metal dumpster, you do the math.) He just needed a break, an opening to run away. If he could get her hurt and winded and down for a moment, he could hoof it out of here.

[makeadragonwannaretire]

"ERGH!!!"

The sense of electricity racing up her legs and through her body was a surprise. It wasn't the same as expelling the energy but it was at least familiar in some way. Every muscle it raced through tightened and twitched uncontrollably causing her to arch her body and tumble backwards landing on the lid of the dumpster hard, twitching and growling involuntarily.

Oh...oh he would pay for this indignity. He would rue this day.

[beetlebutt]

"Time to go." Jaime ran, down the alley, jumped over a fence, then turned and started running across the nearby US-180, jumping and bouncing off the roofs of cars to get across the very busy multi-lane super highway. Most normal humans wouldn't have been able to cross it without getting hit, something he was banking on. It was another advantage he had here. After growing up in this city and flying over it every day, he knew it like the back of his hand, even with this version being slightly different.

[makeadragonwannaretire]

Unfortunately for Jaime, Azula was not in fact most humans.

Appearing suddenly like a bolt of lightning made flesh she was following him across the highway. As cars drew closer to her she almost seemed to glide out of the way. Smoke rose from her heels as she thrust her hands down and blasted blue flame at the street sending her rocketing the through the air and rapidly closing the distance between them.

His head start it seemed was rapidly running out.

[beetlebutt]

That wasn't good. That was very very not good.

"Of course she has rocket feet," he muttered under his breath.

He wasn't sure how he was going to get out of this.

Diving off of the overpass that made up US 180, he landed on top of a semi-truck passing on a road below, and then, not wanting to make the truck a target, he jumped onto the roof of a McDonald's that the truck passed by.

[makeadragonwannaretire]

As the sound of the truck racing away faded...so too did the sound of flames.

Had she gotten confused? Had he lost her?

A long silence and stillness followed. Would he stay where he was or risk abandoning his hiding place from more appropriate cover?

[beetlebutt]

No way was he staying still. He was going to keep running away, get into the back alleys and neighborhoods where he could just fade into the background somewhere.

If he could completely lose her and power down the suit, he could even pass for some random guy on the street, so long as he didn't walk through anyone.

[makeadragonwannaretire]

WHAM!

Just as he came around the corner a flaming foot crashed into into the side of helmet and skull hard.

Azula did not wait to see if the suit had protected him. She followed up the kick with a double palm blast of flame so forceful it blew her hair back.

[beetlebutt]

The kick knocked Jaime clean out before he even had a chance to think about dodging. The blast of fire? That caused him to slam into a nearby building so hard the brick crumbled around him. He slid to the ground, revealing that the back of the suit was actually cracked and sparking. Even the scarab had been knocked out with that rocket punch. The blue goo mixed with Jaime's blood seeped out of the crack in the armor at his head.

[makeadragonwannaretire]

Towering over his prone form Azula smirked pleased with herself.

"The only downside to defeating you so soundly is I don't get to gloat to you. But I suppose that's somewhat childish of me."

So is talking to yourself. A nagging voice reminded her.

Still she shouldn't waste time and she knew it. Rather then dragging him away to his next ordeal she brought in some fearlings to do the work for her. While it was a tempting thought just to kill him and make the enemy realize that they weren't to be trifled with, she had received a rather "Inspired" suggestion from Alex before she'd left to collect this boy.

There was potential here, and Azula loved taking advantage of potential.

This foolish boy had no idea what Azula had in store for him.