B1 (Blue Beetle X OC): The Unordinary

Chapter 31: Everything goes wrong

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Chloe's POV

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"I'm not very comfortable with this, diving into your mind. It... it is an intrusion." M'gann says. We're currently at Star Labs in Taos, 'we' being the half team, and half the team being me, Conner, M'gann, La'gaan, Jaime, Bart, Arsenal, Robin, Dick, Dr. Strange. Gar and I had to practically drag M'gann here for this. "You have my permission, we must be able to trust each other." Green Beetle says. Then he smiles, a really creepy smile. Everyone gasps and flinches. "Does my smile displease? Is this not how humans convey friendship, to put each other at ease?" Green Beetle says.

I turn to Bart and we both give each other creepy smiles, and Jaime rolls his eyes as us. Conner groans. "There has to be another way." He says to Dick. "I'm not sure what the Martian etiquette is here, but Green Beetle is right. We need to trust each other, which means we need to confirm who he says he is. Miss. M is our only real option" Dick addresses the whole room. "Go for it, angelfish. Reading this guy will be a piece of crab cake." La'gaan says as he places his hands on M'gann's shoulder. Me and Conner gag.

"Please, proceed with the mind link." Green Beetle says. M'gann takes a deep breath, then begins. The whole team stands there as we watch the two Martians communicate telepathically. "This is awkward." I mutter after 10 minutes of standing. Finally M'gann turns to Dick. "Green Beetle is on our side." She clarifies, and the whole room sighs in relief.

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"This consumable contains the Reach's additive. It combines microscopic entities of two chemicals. One is a dopamine palamarse, the other, an adrenaline inhibitor. Taken over generations, they will slowly addict the entire population to Reach, and make the people of Earth placid. Literally incapable to revolt." Green Beetle explains as he holds up two flavors of the Reach's newest drink, Reach. Wow, original, I know. "That matches up exactly with Flash's and Atom's analogy of the additive sample from Lexcorp." Dick says. If I knew this was going to be science talk the whole time, I wouldn't have come.

"Ah, I see, still I am tested." Green Beetle says, realizing what Dick was doing. "Look, we're sorry, but-" Dick begins but Green cuts him off. "No, it is wise. As they say on your world, all cards must be off the table." Green reassures him. "On the table. Er, nevermind, ignore me." Jaime says, and I shoot him a small smile, which he returns. "On the table, yes, that does make more sense. So here is my final card on the table. My Scarab informs me that the additive also contains a mitochondrial marker. Which works as a meta gene tracer, allowing the Reach to identify and isolate potential superpowered individuals." Green explains.

"Making it easier to harvest and weaponize the meta gene, our analysis didn't reveal that! Thank you." Dick exclaims. "Can't we go public with this?" Jaime asks. Dick thinks for a second. "I'll pass it on with Captain Atom, but the League's credibility is at a record low right now, we'll probably have to bite our time." Dick mutters. Then he turns to the whole room. "Good work everyone. Meeting adjourned." Dick says.

"Hermanos! The night is young!" Bart says as he wraps his arms around me and Jaime. "Ouch! Dude, watch the shoulder!" I say as I pull myself away, my shoulder in cast and bandages. The coverup story: roller skating incident. "The night is over, jefe, and all I want to do is go home and catch some sleep." Jaime says. "Ditto." I agree. "How about we meet up first thing in the morning, like, noonish?" Jaime says. "Sounds crash! See you then!" Bart says, and he zooms off.

We then turn to see Green still in the room. He studied me. "You are the princess, the destroyer. Why are you here?" He asked me. I groan. "Always the destroyer. Does anybody actually know my name?!" I exclaim as I throw my hand over my face. "My apologies, what shall I call you?" He asks. "Chloe, just Chloe please." I say. I was really looking forward to going to bed.