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July 2015: El Paso
It's late at night, and the streets are quiet. The Kord Industries parking lot is brightly lit, offering a tempting shortcut on the way home.
Lights are on in the building: some hard-working scientist must be pulling an all-nighter.
Good for them. Ellie is not pulling an all-nighter, and is in fact hurrying home so that she does not have to.
She dodges across the verge and through the lot.
That may not have been the smartest decision she's made today.
She's about halfway across the lot when the building explodes with a BOOM that makes her ears ring. She's out of range of the fireball, but the heat from it hits her in the side. Glass shatters; steel warps. Alarms blare.
Good question! The universe does not seem inclined to provide any answers.
Instead, it continues to provide mysterious unexpected happenings. For example, the roughly hand-sized object flying out of that window.
The whatever-it-is skids across the asphalt and comes to a halt a couple of yards away from her.
It looks like one of those Egyptian scarab amulets, only made out of more modern materials. The side she can see is formed from two smooth blue curves of something that might be metal or plastic. There aren't any attachment points that would suggest how it's supposed to be worn, if it's a piece of jewelry.
It's smoking slightly, but seems to be undamaged.
Okay. Probably not going to explode. But something that came out of an explosion is not a thing she wants to mess with. So she's just going to get back up and keep walking. Before anyone gets here. Right? Right.
Well, she might be able to manage the 'before anyone gets here' part. Eventually.
The scarab abruptly pushes itself up onto its legs and launches into motion, skittering straight towards Ellie with surprisingly realistic beetle-like movements. Apart from its size, someone who wasn't looking too closely might mistake it for a real, living insect.
It's fast. Faster than she is. Fast enough that it can reach her foot and start climbing up her leg before she has time to get far enough away.
In a word, no. The scarab easily evades her attempts to brush it off, and continues climbing.
At least it's off her leg now? But now it's on her back, which was presumably not her intention, and burrowing its way under her clothes. The artificial joints make strange clicking noises as it moves.
It does not do that. It does the opposite of that.
She may feel a slight pinching sensation as it settles down between her shoulder blades and attaches itself to her spine. (This won't hurt a bit...)
No, actually, that's a lie. It hurts a lot.
It's in exactly the wrong part of her back; her fingertips scrape across the carapace but don't have the leverage to pull very hard. Even if she could, it's now firmly attached.
...the scarab's legs start growing, until they're long enough to curl over her shoulders and around her sides.
It's almost like wearing a backpack, except for how it's really not like that at all.
The impact hurts less than she was expecting. This is probably because of the layer of—armor? Which is spreading out from the scarab, and now covers her entire back. It spreads out and round, creeping over her chest, her legs, her arms.
It's quite comfortable, or would be if she was putting it on willingly rather than it being forced on her. Somehow ridiculously lightweight and flexible despite its apparent sturdiness, the armor feels like it would barely hinder her movement at all.
And then it starts spreading up her neck.
No luck. It doesn't really seem like the sort of material that peels off; it's a little too solid for that.
The armor continues to encase her, scooping up her hair and pinning it out of the way before moving over her face. As a final step, amber-tinted lenses slide in front of her eyes. Just ten seconds from when the scarab first attached itself to her back, the transformation is complete.
To be fair, Kord Industries has problems of its own right now, what with the whole 'exploded building' situation.
«Initializing,» says a voice that would probably be ominous even if it wasn't sounding directly inside her head. It has a slightly robotic tone, but otherwise sounds vaguely reminiscent of her own voice.
«The Blue Beetle is activated.»
«You are not the Daniel Garrett,» the scarab informs her, sounding vaguely annoyed.
«Identification is requested.»
«Profanity is unnecessary.» Now it sounds disapproving. Really, it's demonstrating quite a remarkable range of emotion given the circumstances.
«I am Khaji Da, an artificial intelligence created to control the Blue Beetle» it introduces itself. «The Blue Beetle cannot operate without a host. You are needed for optimal functioning.»
"I don't give a shit about your optimal functioning. Get off." She resumes trying to reach around and pry the thing off her back.
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