#blissfullyoffmode

'I'm trying, I'm trying!'

But it was no use, no use. No matter how much he tried, or wanted to try or begged that it would stop it didn’t. He wished Bart would just run.

His body was advancing on the speedster and Jaime’s panic grew with each step. He didn’t want this to happen.

Bart wanted to run, to never ever look back.  But this time, he couldn't run--the collar was on, and there was nowhere to run to, and the big bad Blue Beetle--the personal subjugatror of humanity, who had torn off the head of another Beetle Warrior before--was right there, right on top of him.

"Please stop,"  He repeated, still begiging as he took another few steps back, eyes wide open, before he tripped, falling back on his bottom.  Throwing his hands up, in a feeble attempt to try and protect himself, Bart screamed once more, trying to not cry.

moodboard:  bluepulse

"Dude, why did you volunteer for this new mission?" Bart asked crossly, drumming his fingers on the stainless steel countertop in the cave's kitchen. "I thought you were going to lay low! That's what we agreed, right? Remember?" Bart had thought that telling Jaime about his role in the Reach-apocalypse had been doing him a favor! This way they could work together to make sure that it didn't happen. After all, that was why Bart had come to the past in the first place! To find Jaime and make sure that he stayed on the straight-and-narrow. And yet it seemed like Jaime was purposely trying to undermine him at every opportunity. No sooner had Bart told Jaime that his scarab was treacherous and that he should lay low for the time being than the other teen had volunteered for a mission to go gather intel on the Reach at a Lexcorp plantation in Smallville. Bart had positively been fuming inside when he heard Jaime speak up to join the squad, but he hid it under a innocent grin. "If Blue's going, I'm going!" He had chirped happily, throwing an arm around Jaime's shoulders and joining the squad himself. Now they were both due to leave for Smallville in a few mere minutes and Bart was not pleased. "This isn't lying low, Jaime!" He hissed, poking a finger into his friend's armored chest. "I don't know what good you think you can do by prancing right up to the Reach's doorstep, but I can assure you it's not worth it! You have to stay behind." He demanded. "I'll tell them you just came down with the flu or something."

jaime: i think we're doing okay

reach: so you have abolished war, racism, disease and hunger?

To say Bart Allen had a crush on his Spanish teacher was like saying that the Mississippi was a long river.  It was a fact, yes, but it was a very bland fact, and shortening the truth.

Which was why Bart often did out-of-character things just to get Señor Reyes' attention.  He swallowed a bit, really regretting having smoked that cigarette now--mostly because it burnt, more than anything--while he watched his teacher.  The bell had rung, but Bart had been staying after for tutouring from his teacher.

And he had probably taken too long of a bathroom break, in order to get his teacher's attention.  And he may have borrowed a cigarette from his brother, Thad, to smoke while in the bathroom, and well...

Formerly: Happy Harbour, Rhode Island Currently: Last Place of Resistance Time: 11:49 AM, 26 May, 2055

Today marked the thirty-ninth year since Blue Beetle had been on mode, and the thirty-eighth since the Reach had systematically taken Earth.  Milagro remembered the day the Reach had declared the domination quite well; she had been only seven, and had smuggled herself away to Happy Harbour to try and find out what had happened to Jaime.  And in another, happier timeline, Milagro's status as the youngest Green Lantern hadn't been a bad thing.

But here, the Reach had won.  So Milagro had hidden her ring--tied in a chain around her neck, tucked under two shirts and into the cup of the bra she wore to never be seen, unless it had been absolutely needed.  And at forty-five years old, Milagro Reyes grew up keeping track off too many things, too angrily.  She often told herself that maybe she could signal out to Oa, and get help for Earth, but as determined as she was, Milagro understood the concept of a suicide mission, and that her elder brother had been lost forever.