B3 (Blue Beetle X OC): The Unchangeable

Chapter 8: I make a friend, who joins our 'family'

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Chloe's POV

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"So have you thought about Kaldur's offer yet?" Artemis asks as we drive to Lucas' house. "I don't know yet." I replied in a sing-songy voice. She rolls her eyes. Going from a little (I'm being sarcastic here) covert ops team to an international public team of professional superheroes was a big jump. Then Artemis grins. "You got a little something on your neck, fun night last night?" She says as she points to my neck, and my eyes widen. "Oh shut up." I mutter as I cover my neck up with my hand and she laughs. Violet took a deep breath from the back seat. "ThereisafootballgameatournewschoolandIwanttogo." Violet spits out quickly. Me and Artemis turn to look back at her. "Come again?" I ask. "I... I want to go to our school's first football game." Violet muttered. "But you don't start school until next Monday." Artemis says. "I know. I heard some girls talking about it at the store, when you took me." She explained. "You're going to Happy Harbor High, right?" I ask, and Violet nods.

"Victor Stone is their quarterback, and not a bad one either." I mutter, and Artemis looks at me visibly confused. "What? Bart and I snuck into a football game when we were bored one time." I explained, and Artemis sighs. "I could take her and Forager, see how it is. Let them make some friends, y'know?" I suggest, but Artemis doesn't respond. "It's not going to be easy for them to make friends in the middle of the year. Plus, I wanna use my drivers license." I whispered, and she slowly nodded. "Fine, as long as you're home by 9:30 tomorrow night." She says to Violet, who eagerly nods. "Booooo. No fun, mom." I mutter, and she lightly slaps me on the shoulder and rolls her eyes.

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"So, I see the glamor charm Zee made for you is working." I whispered to Forager as we walked through the crowd of high school students. I blended into the crowd due to my height, and I assumed Forager blended in because no one had screamed at the sight of a large red bug. "Yes. Forager's necklace is working well on Forager. Forager is now Fred Buggs, with two gs." Forager agrees as he studies the necklace. "What is that smell?" Violet asks, as the familiar smell of buttery popcorn fills the air. I smile at the thought of me and Jaime watching movies and eating popcorn. "Popcorn. You ever had?" I asked as I pointed to the stand, and Forager and Violet shook their heads. I sighed. "So much to learn." I said as I led them to the stand. Forager and Violet reminded me of me when I first got to Earth. After we got our popcorn, we went to our seats. I watched as Happy Harbor led 14 - 0 against the other school. As expected, Victor Stone was amazing. Happy Harbor won 21 - 7. I smiled as I watched Victor being congratulated by his teammates.

"C'mon, it's 9:00. We should get going." I said as I stood up. As we walked out, I noticed the amazingly long lines going to the bathroom. And I looked back at Violet and Forager, who had pleading eyes. "Looks like we'll be leaving by 9:20." I muttered as they both ran off. I stood and braided my hair as the line seemed to move slower. "Hey blondie, wanna come party with us?" I heard a deep voice say, and I turned to see a tall football player, who was obviously a bit drunk. "No thanks, I'm good." I muttered as I tried to avoid eye contact. "C'mon, It'll be fun. Maybe just me and you, a night out." He tried again. "I said I'm fine, now fuck off." I snapped, and he narrowed his eyes. "I don't like no for an answer." He said, his words getting slurred. I rolled my eyes and began to walk off, but he grabbed my wrist, hard. "Get off of me!" I said as I tried to tug my wrist free, but he held a tight grip. "I could show you my place." He said, and I could smell the beer on him as he leaned closer to me. "She said fuck off man." I heard another voice say, and I turned to see the one and only Victor Stone.

The boy glared. "C'mon Bryce, I heard Quince was waiting for you by the front." Victor said, and a smile immediately ran up Bryce's face at the mention of the name Quince. He wobbled off towards the exit, looking for Quince. "Thanks." I said as I rubbed my wrist. "You okay?" Victor asked. "Yeah, fine. I've had worse." I muttered thinking of the constant 'covert' missions I was on. "Nice playing. You're not a bad quarterback." I complimented him, and he grinned. "Thanks." He replied, and I smiled. "You go here?" He asked, and I scrambled to think of an excuse. "Uh, no. I was just here with a few of my friends." I finally spat out, and he nodded. "Nice. I gotta go, see you around-uh, what was your name?" Victor asked as he began to walk off. "Chloe." I replied. He smiled. "Nice to meet you, Chloe." He said, then walked off. After another few minutes of silence, Violet and Forager came back. "Finally. Let's get going, because it's... 9:37. Oh, Mama A is gonna kill me." I muttered as we turned and began to make our way to the car.

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"Dick Grayson, this better be good or I have every right to murder you." I mutter as we arrive at Lucas' house. Why were we here? Because Violet and Forager thought it would be a genius idea to bring home a new meta human they found on their very first day of school. Maybe meta human wasn't the correct term. M'gann had made it sound almost like a cyborg or something. "Okay, M'gann, we're all here. What happened?" Dick asks as M'gann steps away from her conversation with Violet to talk to us. "I take it your first day at school was a bit, a-typical?" Artemis says as she places a hand on Violet's shoulder. "How would I know? Maybe everyday-" Violet begins, but M'gann cuts her off. "I know. It was very a-typical." M'gann says. "And who is this?" Brion asks, and my jaw drops when I see who it is. "Victor Stone is Victor Stone." Forager replied as I noticed Victor's half robotic body. "Victor?! What the hell happened to you?" I asked as he turned to look at me, and his eyes widened. "You know him?" Conner asked. I waved my hand. "Why are you here?" He asked me.

Point taken. "Uh, because. But what happened?" I asked, and he looked at the ground. "Things." He muttered in response. I took that as my time to shut up. "You guys really aren't freaked out by the way I look?" Victor asked as he raised his robotic arm. "You picked the right crowd." Conner remarked. "Perhaps. But is Victor Stone freaked out about how Forager looks?" Forager asked as he took off his glamor charm, revealing his regrowing shell from the attack a few days ago. Victor shrieked and threw himself back onto the grass. "Apparently Victor Stone is." Forager muttered. "No, no, I'm sorry, you've been great, it's just, caught me off guard." Victor replied as Jeff helped him up. "Way off guard." Jeff added. "Way off guard." Victor agreed. I sighed. "I'm going to head out." I said to Dick, who nodded. "Welcome to the family." I said to Victor, who gave me a small smile. I turned and headed back towards the zeta tubes.

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"This is going to be so fun!" I exclaimed as we stood outside Gar's apartment. An hour later, Jaime and I were ready for our double date with Perdita and Gar. Jaime smiled as he knocked on the door, which Gar immediately opened. "Gotta admit, I miss the monkey look." I said as Gar grinned and wrapped us both into a hug. "Are they here?" I heard Perdita's voice say from the bathroom. "Yup." Gar said, and Perdita gasped. She immediately ran out and wrapped me into a hug. "It's so good to see you again." I exclaimed as I wrapped her back into a hug. "We should do this more often." I agreed, and she smiled. "Give me a minute, I just have to touch up my makeup and change." Perdita said as she ran back into the bathroom. I gasped as I noticed two sets of Goode VR goggles. "Can we try?" I asked Gar, who eagerly nodded. "Aw, c'mon, don't I get a turn?" Jaime complained. "When I'm done." I replied as I placed the goggles on my head. "Funny monkeys!" I exclaimed as I selected the game, but then everything went dark.