InsaneJournal

Jaime ReyesBlue Beetle

Physicals PB: Tyler Posey
Appearance: Jaime is 5'10" with black hair and brown eyes, of Mexican ancestry. A little on the skinny side, he's been gaining a bit of muscle mass since the scarab decided to make a home in his body. He's a good looking young man, with longish, slightly shaggy hair, but he's not stopping cars. The most interesting thing about him physically is the scarab - a piece of alien technology - that has crawled into his back and fused to his spine, granting him the abilities he has as Blue Beetle.

AbilitiesStrengths

Jaime's power generates from an alien symbiote 'scarab' grafted to his spine, which manifests itself in a number of ways to protect Jaime, its host; most commonly as a suit of high-tech armor. Though Jaime had little control of this ability at first, he has since learned to work with the scarab - a sentient being who has taken the name Khaji Da and learned to recognize Jaime as its first friend.

Jaime is still learned the exact extent of the scarab's abilities. The suit can alter itself to create different utilities and weapons, such as energy cannons, power blades, and wings. Both Jaime and the scarab claim to be capable of even greater powers, some of W.M.D. strength, and in one particular instance - capable of handling the Spectre - however, Jaime always requests options that preclude lethal force. Jamie's primary weapon involves energy. He can project it from his hands, create shields, disrupt magic, tune into vibrational frequencies, discharge Kryptonite radiation, and make extra-dimensional objects visible.

He can also see extra-dimensional object whether the scarab is active or not, using a special sort of sight inherent with the bonding. The sight is useful in helping gather information on Jaime's opponants. He has also learned to communicate with the scarab in its own language, and the scarab has likewise slowly learned to communicate with Jaime in English.

One of the most interesting aspects of the scarab's interface with Jaime is the scarab's ability to process Jaime's bodily excretions while he's in the suit, including waste, skin cells, etc. The scarab has created paper made from Jaime's skin cells and 'printed' it from the armor. He has also, on occasion, clothed Jaime. We don't ask out of what.

Beyond the scarab and its abilities, Jaime's strengths like in two things - the most important are his family and his friends. Jaime's parents and sister are the most important part of his life and their support of him is integral to who he is today, and what he will become. They may not have much, but they would give everything to support him, and he would die to protect them.

Jaime's friends may not be the smartest, or the strongest, or have powers, but they were there for him when he needed them, and are as close to him as any brother or sister would be. They have his back.

Finally, Jaime himself is just an ordinary kid. He's a B-student, he's not particularly strong, or handsome, or smart, or even special. He doesn't want to be president, but when given the chance, he decides to do the right thing. What gives Jaime strength is his moral center. In an attempt to use him against his friend, a spell was placed on him to used his deepest desires against him. It turned out that Jaime's deepest, darkest aspirations were - to be a dentist. They make six figures a year.

He also notes that, blue beetles don't need no stinkin' scarab.

Weaknesses

Jaime's weaknesses also stem from the scarab. He has gained a lot more control over the scarab, but that control is not total. To begin with, the scarab is the product of an alien race known as the Reach, who's intention was to use them as scouts. They would embed theirselves into a host and once the civilization reached a certain technilogical point, alert the Reach, who would then come and use the host as an ambasador in order to conquor and destroy the civilization. To their surprise, Jaime's scarab was 'defective'; in other words, it somehow did not interface properly and control Jaime, he was able to override it and communicate with. But the scarab still maintains the inherently violent coding of its origins and constantly suggests plans of attack that result in the death of either Jaime's immediate target, or everyone in the surrounding area.

The scarab also has what Jaime refers to as an 'Infiltrator Mode', which occurs whenever Jaime allows the scarab to take full control of the armor, either on purpose, or when he loses consciousness - or on the occasion when his mind was being controlled. The Infiltrator is more in keeping with the Reach programming; a taller, spikier, more muscular version of Jaime's armor, who is much more violent and brutal. Neither Jaime or the scarab like this uncontrolled state and prefer working together. However sometimes the influence of the Infiltrator has been seen in Jaime even when he is in control - such as when his sister was threatened and he was so angry, he was conscious of his desire to kill his oponent.

The suit has an unusual flaw in its reluctance to harm nature, such as trees. While fighting trees that were attacking him, the suit shut down until Jaime was able to convince it that his own life was in trouble.

Since his suit was rebooted, the emergence of the scarab to create the armor, as well as the rescinding of it afterward, is extremely painful.

Jaime is susceptible to magic, and vulnerable to weapons or enemy powers that counter energy.

He is, of course, just a human kid. One that has a scarab in his back, but otherwise, unremarkable and very squishy. He has a family, friends, and a lot of vulnerabilities.

Personality Jaime is, by all accounts, a good kid. He's the peace-maker - the kind of guy everyone goes to just to talk with because they can be theirselves around him and not worry about being judged. He's easygoing, friendly, funny, and quick to laugh. Without the scarab, Jaime is the textbook definition of average, but you won't see him feeling bad about it. His greatest aspiration is was to be a dentist, and he's very proud of his father, and automechanic. He has an enormous sense of responsibility toward his family and friends, and the most important things he knows he's learned from them. Their support gives him the strength and courage he needs to be a hero.

Background Jaime was a teenager living with his mom, dad, and little sister in El Paso, TX when he found a blue scarab in the dirt and brought it home. That night, the scarab crawled into his back, fused itself to his spine, and the third Blue Beetle was born. He had no idea where it came from or how it got there, or what it wanted, but before he could figure it out, a Green Lantern showed up and the scarab tried to defend itself, sending him into another dimension for what felt like only a few minutes to him but what was, to everyone else, an entire year.

When he returned, Jaime had a difficult time explaining to his family what had happened, that it wasn't drugs, and showing them the armor only made things worse. His mother treated the scarab like a cancer for a time, and Jaime wasn't sure he could blame her. His sister was terrified, but his father was supportive and his friends were just glad to have him back.

But things had changed while Jaime was away. Jaime's father had been shot because of one of his employees, resulting in a permanent limp. His friend Brenda's abusive father was dead and she was now living with her aunt, later learned to be a powerful mafiosa, and his best friend Paco had taken up with a street gang of local superheroes known as the Posse.

Jaime tries to resume a normal life but this proves impossible as things begin to happen which require him to jump into action as the Blue Beetle. He soon gathers a support team to help him, including a former hero called the Peacemaker - a man who knows quite a bit about the scarab and is wary of Jaime, knowing how dangerous it is because like the original Blue Beetle, Dan Garrett, he went to the Bialyan pyramid, and received the database for the scarab. Other members of the team, along with Brenda and Paco, include a set of twins - brother and sister computer experts - who use their expertise to track crime and natural disasters and help answer questions for Jaime in battle. He also meets the Homo Magi Traci 13, and occasionally works with her, forming a quasi-relationship.

From Peacemaker Jaime learns that the scarab is not, as he thought, magic, but alien technology - however it was magic from the scarab's first contact with men that corrupted the scarab, resulting in both the separation of the scarab from the database, and Jaime's ability to control it. From the Green Lanterns, Jaime learns how the Reach - the creators of the scarab - fought the corp and ended in a truce, which they were obviously ignoring, but without enough evidence for them to be challenged on. The scarabs are sent as a protector to the planets the Reach hopes to overtake and then used to turn the host into their vangard. As Jaime's scarab was corrupted, when the Reach arrived on Earth, they pretended to be friendly in the hopes of subverting him some other way.

Jaime takes the fight to the Reach, using the Bleed's time-warp effect to attack them in three places at once. He then attacks the flagship but as he does, they attack his home. Enraged, he's left vulnerable and the Reach is able to shut down the scarab and rip it out of him, locking both of them up. While Jamie's family is joined by his friends, the posse, and many other allies to fight off the attack, Jaime uses the information downloaded into his brain at the last second by the scarab to escape. The Reach panics, shutting down the ship, but it doesn't matter. Shouting Dan Garrett's old phrase of "Khaji Da!" he reveals that the scarab has not only gained a personality (taking that phrase as its name), it has bonded with Jaime and considers him its friend, siding with him against the Reach.

The Reach leader launches a superweapon against the Earth and Jaime and the scarab agree to sacrifice themselves to save it. At the last second, Booster Gold appears and rescues them, returning them to El Paso, safe and sound.

In an attempt to destroy Jaime, the Reach take the missing data Jaime was lacking to control the scarab and combined it with a new scarab, inserting both into the Peacemaker, making him the violent creature he always feared Jaime would become. After Jaime fought him, Peacemake cut the scarab from his spine so that it would never be used as a weapon again.

In a fight that let him to the local prison, Jaime discovered the man who was responsible for his father getting shot. When he went to confront him, he stumbled upon a rash of murders committed by the Spectre. Jaime prevented the Spectre from killing Luis, but was warned that if Jaime ever let the scarab kill, the Spectre would come for him.

The Reach later returns at a school dance, outing him until he's cleverly able to project an image of himself in two places at once, and inform Jaime that they were inspired by Khaji Da's message of revolution. They have returned to earth to free it from all threats, which includes humans. Jaime is unable to reason with them, and is forced to fight. During the battle his tech support person Nadia is unable to reach him, so shows up to get him a message, and is killed. Her brother is devestated and angry, blaming Jaime for her death. He takes the scarab from a dead Reach and leaves, last seen getting on a plane trying to use the name of the scarab's host.

Jaime is able to defeat them, but only after taking a kamikaze dive that injures him badly and forcing the scarab to deactivate itself and attempt to reboot in a process that - if it worked - would take at least twenty-seven days. Jaime healed slowly, without any sign that the scarab would come back until late on the twenty-seventh day when finally, there was a tickle of energy and the familiar alien words telling him that the reboot was complete.

Unfortunately, the rebooted scarab was more bloodthirsty than ever, constantly encouraging him to use brutal force when he fought and causing him even more pain when he donned the armor. Worse, its influence over him took a turn for the worse. An enemy calling himself Black Beetle attacked his family while hiking, first claiming to be Hector, twin brother to Nadia, his old tech support team, wanting revenge for her death. He then retracted this statement, and claimed to have killed Hector, stealing the scarab from him. When Jaime's sister Milagro is injured, Jaime furiously attacks, giving in to the scarab's suggestion to use lethal force. He manages to restrain himself though when Black Beetle claims to be a future incarnation of himself, who takes up the black armor when Milagro suffers brain damage from the incident and destroys the scarab. Leaving the fight, Jaime instead chooses to get his sister medical help, but is disturbed by the encounter and worries about his future.

While he doesn't believe that Black Beetle is his future self, Jaime does worry about the scarab's new brutality and his own susceptibility to it. Talking it over with his parents, they decided that the best course of action would be to move to the east coast where Jaime could be closer to the other Blue Beetle, along with many other superheroes, and get their some help and advice from them.

The family moved to Metropolis - more affordable than Manhattan, and safer, too - where Jaime's father Alfredo was able to open another garage and his mother Bianca was able to get a job in the local hospital. Jaime will be a finishing his Junior year at Midtown, though he doesn't really see the point, since there's only one month left.

BasicsFull Name: Jaime Reyes
Affiliation: Teen Titans, Young Justice, Green Lantern Corps (Just kidding)
Aliases/Nicknames:The Blue Beetle (iii)
Age/D.O.B.: 17/10.18.95
Place of Birth: El Paso, TX.
Current Residence: Metropolis, DE
Occupation: Student.

OOCName: Kimberlee
Timezone: PST
Age: 33
CDJ: dmzasylum
AIM: BrethlessM
Email: BrethlessM@aol.com
Journal Name: escarbajoazul_

OtherCharacter Limit?: 7/8
Plans/Ideas?: Chill with the other teens, Boostle, have him work with his newly rebooted Scarab, get help from Ted with it so he doesn't become evil. Not kill/be killed by the GL's. Also not get stranded in space. Hang out with Bart, be bugs with Mia.

code by ~affictitious