Mineral X [Blue Beetle]

[bangbaby]

Players: Blue Beetle and Static Shock
Location(s): Dakota city
Plot Summary: A mysterious metal ore has landed in Dakota City. While Blue Beetle and Static Shock try to figure out what it is a government force attempts to take it from them.

“Eyewitnesses told us it fell from the skies. Naturally it had to streak over Paris Island so the people who did see it wouldn’t exactly be the most reliable witnesses.” Officer Willis stood over the table in the lab of the DCPD. Dakota City tended to the victim of its own people. Outside forces rarely manipulated and changed the city for the worse or the better. So when a meteor from space had crashed into the Paris River the police had realized that this was a situation that couldn’t be taken lightly. Officer Omar Willis had often relied on Static Shock for scientific advice in the past and luckily Static had been in town when the man had given him a call. Static was happy to help but he was just as stumped as Willis was. He just wasn’t willing to admit it yet.

A metallic ore roughly the size of a human body had crashed into the river and it had taken quite a lot of effort to fish it out. Static had been there to help manipulate and move the ore with his magnetic powers. While he could move it around he still wasn’t sure what it was. He definitely knew that it was alien. “Strange.” Static closed his eyes and held his hand over the ore. He slowly waved his hands over the massive hunk of metal as blue electricity sparked around his hands. He was trying to find irregularities in the ore itself. Yet he simply wasn’t able to find anything. He was at a dead end and he lacked the technological ability to explore further. Officer Willis must have noticed this because he asked if he needed any help. “Nah, I’m good. You mind if I bring in a second opinion on this? I know a guy who could crack this a lot sooner.” Willis paused in hesitation before he nodded. “Go ahead man, work your magic.”

Virgil nodded and reached into his pocket for his cellphone. He checked the time. It was roughly 9 P.M. on a Saturday night. Jaime had to be up right now. He was either playing video games or on patrol. Hopefully he wouldn’t be bothering him or distracting him from anything too important. He didn’t want to wreck Jaime’s night. It just so happened that he was the only person on Virgil’s speed dial list with a sophisticated scanning system. He dialed Jaime’s number and then pressed it to his ear. “Yo, hermano!” He backed away from the ore as Officer Willis gave him a curious look. “Some type of alien mineral crashed into my hometown. I can’t draw a bead on what it is and you just so happen to have the most powerful weapon in the galaxy so maybe you might be able to scan it for me? Really? Thanks man, I owe you one.” He hung up the phone.

“Help is on the way.” He said with a big grin.

[Blue Beetle]

Jaime was sitting at home watching some TV with his little sister, Milagro. His mother was working on some paperwork for the hospital and his father was fixing up one of the old cars in the garage. It wasn't too beat up, but when his dad found a problem, he wanted to make sure he could fix it.

As for Jaime and Milagro, there was nothing like watching people on that silly show known as "Wipe Out!" A whole bunch of people would try and go through these slippery slick water-set courses and constantly wiped out. It provided stupid and silly humor to them both. Their laughter chimed through the house until the scarab was getting a call. The ring buzzed through his head. Jaime debated on ignoring it, but only other heroes got the number to contact him through the scarab. Waiting a bit more, the Scarab explained that the one calling was Static. Nodding to himself, Jaime got up off his seat.

"You now have control!" Jaime said dramatically as he placed the TV remote in front of Milagro's face. "I must take a call!" He announced and quickly left the room and into the hallway, leaving his sister happy, yet confused.

Holding a hand to his ear, the Scarab activated a bit of the armor. Some of the helm loomed over one side of his head and a scattered bunch crawled it's way up the hand at his ear. With a small beep and a little buzz, the scarab's inner phone was picked up.

"Beetle to Static, what's up?" He asked in preparation for either horribly bad news or just someone wanting to hang. It was most likely going to be the first option. It most always was.

Static spoke in, he didn't sound all too worried. That on it's own was a bit of relief. He informed of some strange alien-type of mineral landed in his hometown. The way he explained why he needed his help almost made Jaime roll his eyes, but he really just nodded, knowing his nod could not be seen on the other end of the call and agreed. "Sure!" Thank yous were said and then Jaime let the Scarab continue to armor him up fully. "Just give me like, 30 minutes or so to get there. I'm not exactly local." It wouldn't be that long of a flight, but it took some time to get fully adjusted to the atmosphere and whatnot.

He lowered his hand and hung up the call. "I gotta go, but I'll be back later. You go to bed, missy." Beetle ordered in the kiddish older brother tone as he pointed to his little sister, sitting all slumped on the sofa. He made way to the door and waved to his mother who was sitting in her office. "You be careful, Jaime! Don't be out too late!" "I won't!" He called back and closed the back door behind him. Heh. His mom was always giving him the usual 'be safe' speech with every mission. His dad was like that at first, but not as much now. He's far too used to this whole superhero thing. Mom though.... not so much.

-----------------------------

25 to 30 minutes went by and Jaime made it to the scene. Having used the Scarab's tracking system, he was able to target Static's code and fly right to his location. Blue Beetle gave a few waves to those who waved first. With a small breath, Jaime waved to Static. "Hey, sorry for the wait." He apologized, forgetting that his trip really was just as long, if not shorter, than what he stated on the phone. "Is this it?" He figured, pointing to the large chunk of dark material.

*#&& "Yeah, I'm going to guess this is it." He shrugged and stepped closer to the mysterious rock-like substance.

[bangbaby]

Virgil leaned against the wall and examined the mineral from a distance. It was times like these that he sorely wished that he had a scarab or some type of technological suit. He simply lacked the money or finesse to create something like that. He was fairly certain that he could create something basic if he put his mind to it. The one thing that people always told Static was that he had potential. Every day he strove to take advantage of his potential but he was always stopped by some outside source. He made a mental note to speak to his superiors about assigning him to more engineering projects. He was good at building things. He just needed to prove it. Yet for now all he could do was focus on the mineral at hand and he was coming up with nothing but dead ends.

Thirty minutes later and Virgil was just starting to wonder where Jaime was when he showed up. He knew that his friend had just flown across the country at Virgil's request but he couldn't resist the urge to tease him. "For a suit dat can move at the speed of light you definitely took your time." He teased with a grin. "It's alright, man. Dat rock ain't goin' anywhere." His accent tended to flare up whenever he was in Dakota City. It was something he definitely wasn't ashamed of. It was just something he tended to supress when he was working at Star Labs. That wasn't exactly the place to toss around incorrect grammar.

"Got any reads on it?" Virgil questioned as he followed Blue Beetle. He was looking forward to watching his friend work his magic.

[Blue Beetle]

Jaime's yellow eyes rolled at Static's comment. "Heh, I dare you to fly as fast as you can without getting lost or hitting a tree." The young hero mused back with a grin.

Kneeling by and holding his hand over the rock, Jaime let the Scarab do it's usual reading. Sure, he didn't need to do the theatrics of holding his hand over the stone, but he figured it would help the Scarab read it better. A few beeps and boops later, the Scarab came up with an answer, though it was an answer Jaime was not entirely expecting.

@!@^ %#&$!
"Nnth Metal?"
)!#
"Ore?"

Jame's brow raised as he listened in curiously. He had heard that name before, but where he couldn't quite remember. He looked back to Static and took a few steps back to speak better with the fellow hero. "Okay, uh, the Scarab is calling it Nnth Metal-")!# "-ore. Does that mean anything to you?" The Blue Beetle asked with raised shoulders and a confused head-tilt.

Why this chunk of metal landed in the center of Dakota City, Jaime didn't know, and neither did the Scarab. Thinking for a brief moment, Jaime looked around to the metal and back to Static.

"Have you had any weird... alien sightings or alien things in general happen around here recently?"

[bangbaby]

“Fair enough.” Static said with a simple nod. He had crashed into many a building during his early career as Static Shock. As Jaime began to study the rock Virgil stepped backwards reverently. He crossed his arms over his chest and stared down at the rock anxiously to watch Jaime do his work. Technically speaking it wasn’t Jaime that was doing the analysis. It was the scarab that was currently imbued in his spine. To Jaime’s credit he was still whip smart and had actually gotten the scarab to work. Even Ted Kord hadn’t been able to do that and rumor had it that he was smarter than Batman. So instead of asking questions and wondering why it looked like Jaime was having a conversation with himself he waited. Virgil quirked an eyebrow as Jaime mentioned a metal and an ore that he had never heard of before. “Nah.”

Virgil shook his head at Jaime’s question. He had no idea what Nnth Metal or Nnth Ore was. It sounded familiar but he had no idea what it was. He had just heard it being mentioned in passing. “Nothing more than the usual.” Virgil said cryptically. He had found an ancient lizard creature claiming to be from underspace in the sewers a couple of weeks ago. Yet the lizard had just been another bang baby who had been driven insane. Still Virgil knew that his answers were a little frustrating. “Maybe we should run some te-“ The lights flickered once, then twice and then went out. Virgil frowned. “Office Willis?” He heard a click and realized that the officer had pulled out his gun. “I don’t know what-urg!” The sound of a bullet piercing glass alerted Virgil to danger. He ducked just as Officer Willis fell to the ground. He anxiously crawled towards the man and elevated his body. “Officer Willis?!” Blood pumped out of a gaping hole in the man’s chest.

The man stared up at Static though he didn’t seem to see him and took his dying breath. Another bullet wizened above Static’s head and buried itself into a wall. Virgil slid behind a gurney. “Beetle! You alright?!” He already knew the answer to that question but he needed to hear it. Virgil stared at the blood that had soaked into his shirt and the blood on his hands. He should have seen this coming. Alien minerals didn’t crash into the ground without attracting someone’s attention.

[Blue Beetle]

A sigh left Jaime as Static announced that he had not heard of this metal before. Looking down at the odd rock, Jaime tried to figure out just where it came from, how it got here and all that. It sounded familiar to him as well as the scarab, but no bells were being rung. It was beginning to irritate the young hero. Kinda like when you have the name of an actor or some voice that you swear on all that is holy you know, but for some darn reason you just can't name it? That's how Jaime felt with this Nith metal ore.

Maybe it belonged to an old enemy? Not that old, though. He's only been in this business for three years. That's barely anything in hero years.

Looking back to Static, he had answered the question asked moments ago. Nope. Seems like there's been nothing really different here at Static's home turf either. Well this was really going to be irritating. He wanted to get to the bottom of this, but it looked like it would take a lot more than just figuring out what type of metal this fallen rock was.

Placing a hand to his chin, Jaime began to think about what was to happen with it. Static prepared to give the option that Jaime was debating on when suddenly, the power and light around them went out, making the entire area go black. "What!?" Jaime's instincts forced his body to stress. The suit kicked in and his night vision took moments to fully activate. By the time it had been activated, what he saw... well... It was not for the faint of heart.

"Oh god-!" Beetle gasped as he saw the gaping hole in the officer's chest. Static made his way over to him and sadly, the officer had passed. "Who's there?!" Jaime growled out into the air. Seconds passed and there was a sudden barrage of bullets. Jaime could have sworn to almost jump out of the suit. The bullets came out of no where. Ducking low, the suit was preparing it's defenses. Looking around, Jaime heard his teammate's call.

"Yeah. Yeah I'm fine! What's going on?!" He asked, confused and angered that someone had to die over his own stupidity. He should know what's going on. But no. No he doesn't. He has no idea as to what is happening here. Did someone want this metal? Is it rare? Important? What was going on?