Capítulo 396: 58
Chapter LVIII: Runaways.
Blüdhaven May 5, 20:08 EDT.
Kage was going over the S.T.A.R. Labs reports concerning everything the Justice League has confiscated over the years before seeing one on the Runaways that was mixed in.
"They'll be making a break for it in about a week."
Naruto looked to see his future self fixing his black arm walk over.
"S.T.A.R. Labs was pushing them too far, originally. The Reach got them back, then a controlled Blue Beetle caught up to them. Now..."
"It's changed again?" Naruto asked looking down at the file.
"Kind of… Blue is still there, but he's not controlled. In the previous and now, he's had to leave because another threat comes up right after he meets them." Naruto E. said before walking away.
Now.
Taos May 13, 13:05 MDT.
(A/N: This will be canon up to when Blue gets involved, so feel free to skip.)
In the Labs testing room, Tye, Asami and Neut watch as Virgil Hawkins levitates a metal trash can lid around. All in white coveralls with the S.T.A.R. Labs logo.
"Not just the lid, but the whole can."
The others looked to their right to see a window with a man on the other side.
He is a Caucasian male with brown hair and brown eyes. He's wearing a lab coat, with a simple shirt under it. His shirt is not buttoned up properly and the bottoms of his pants are baggy and a size or two too large.
Virgil yelled and slammed the lid into a wall in frustration.
"Look Doc. We've been at this for 5 hours straight! How about a lunch break?!"
Dr. Wilcox looked at his watch that's around his neck before sighing. "OK, we'll take 20 minutes for lunch."
They walked outside and down the hall before walking past Eduardo's father office, and overhear an argument between the scientist and his son. Ed tells his father that he and the others are tired of the testing.
Eduardo is determined to prove his theory that the Meta-Gene is opportunistic in nature, but all Ed wants is a cure.
"You only have yourself to blame for running away from Argentina!"
"I thought I wanted to be with my father. But I guess that was a mistake." Eduardo then and storms out of the office, meeting his friends outside.
"Oh, hey, we just now were passing by. We didn't hear-!" Neut was interrupted by Ed.
"It's fine, it's an old argument."
"This is messed up. S.T.A.R. Labs is just as bad as the Reach." Tye said walking down the hall.
"Come on, Tye. This is NOT as bad as the Reach." Neut said getting the Native American teenager to sigh,
"Whatever, Neut! I just know that I can't take much more of this pace."
"You won't have to. Because we're breaking out of here tonight." Virgil said as they made it to the end of the hall.
In another room, Adam Strange and Eduardo Sr. looked at the Hall of Justice boxes that came through a Zeta Tunnel before Adam focused on one box that had 'A.M.A.Z.O.' on it
Taos May 13, 19:30 MDT.
"That's enough for today." Dr. Wilcox said to the teens who were exercising. "We'll begin again promptly at 06:00 hours tomorrow."
The teens sighed as Asami looked confused.
"Mou oshi mai. Oyasumi nasai, Asami-san. (We're finished. Goodnight, Asami.)" He said in Japanese getting her to nod.
"Please tell me you're not serious about running?" Neut said as the others took off their coveralls.
"Running, escaping, whatever you want to call it, we're going."
"This is serious! I nearly blew up Central City! What if my powers come back?! Escalate again?! What if yours do?! Dude, you can't control them now!"
"Look. I know Wilcox is a pain. S.T.A.R. Labs is a pain. But they're just trying to keep us safe. Or at least keep the world safe from us."
"I'm outta here." Virgil said walking to the hall with the others. "You coming Sam?" Virgil asked Asami who looked confused before Tye looked to her and gestured to leave.
Suddenly, an alarm went off as Neut hit a button, forcing the others run towards an exit.
"The alarm's put the whole place on lockdown!" Virgil yelled out
"Well, what was your escape plan?" Eduardo asked as Virgil looked to him
"I… didn't actually have a chance to come up with a plan but… Hey, Ed can teleport us out!"
"Haven't you been paying attention? I can only teleport myself and only along sight lines. Which makes escaping from a windowless, locked hallway somewhat difficult!" Eduardo yelled out pointing to the windowless halls.
"Uh… No problem. Tye can do his thing. Rip the roof off of the building and lift us all out!" Virgil said pointing to Tye.
"Wrong! I don't know how to activate my 'thing'!" Tye replied with air quotes before Asami pointed behind them showing guards coming to them.
"You kids need to come with us!"
"I don't think so." Eduardo said before teleporting in a yellow light, appearing behind the guards. "Behind you."
Asami clapped her hands together as she glowed pink and suddenly shot forward as an air disturbance in a trail of concentric circles formed behind her.
She tackled the guards as Virgil used his electricity to throw a fire extinguisher at the final guard as the lights went out leaving only the emergency lights. Asami went to the exit and revealed it was now unlocked, allowing them to run out.
El Paso May 13, 20:52 MDT.
"Look Kage, I don't know about this, one of those S.T.A.R. kids is Tye."
"Oh really? I didn't know that! Look Jaime, you're the best one for this. You were one of the ones rescued along with them, and they won't trust me because Dinah and I were interviewing them. Besides, Grifter will be with you. Mainly because I need him to get over what happened in the future."
"Jaime Reyes, the Reach wants you to do this to try and get your friends, repeat after me." The Scarab said as Jaime picked up a thin jacket.
"(Sigh) Okay, I'm on it."
Taos May 13, 21:20 MDT.
Virgil hangs up at a pay phone outside a bus depot and heads inside.
"I can't believe you called your family! I'm not returning to mine!" Tye said shocked.
"Hey, unlike you, I wasn't running away from home. The Reach mistook me for a runaway because I was meeting my sister at a train station. I left a message for my parents asking them to wire money so we can buy bus tickets to Dakota City."
"And aren't you forgetting something?" Ed asked them. "Your parents are heading here, and Kage said he locked up your mom's boyfriend so why are you leaving? I left because of my father, and Asami..." Ed trailed off to the Japanese girl who's wearing a green and yellow vest.
"I actually don't want a cure, I like my powers." Virgil said as as he uses his powers to take a drink from a vending machine.
"Dude, don't drink that! It's Reach!" Tye yelled as Virgil took a sip from the can. And had Virgil spit it out before using his powers to throw the can in a recycle can as Tye went to a bench to take a nap.
Asami went to the door and her eyes widened. "Yabai! Yasura ga kulu! (Trouble! They're coming!)"
The others looked at her in confusion before she brought Eduardo over to show him S.T.A.R. Labs security was just outside.
"Compañero… (Buddy…) Wilcox is here!" Eduardo said as Virgil went to wake Tye up. Only for him to glow gold and had an astral projection body form to several stories tall.
He pushed the ceiling off and grabbed the others before stepping out just as Blue Beetle flew down. And was stomped on as Grifter, on the Super Cycle, flew down to fly with Blue to catch up with the others.
They caught up to the Runaways as Tye woke up, dispersing his new form.
"Oh… I thought it was a dream." Tye groaned out before Blue Beetle flew down.
"It wasn't a dream, trust me." Blue said as he landed. "We're not here to hurt you. But you four need to go back to S.T.A.R. Labs."
"Look. I recognize you. You're one of the good guys. One of the heroes that saved us all from the Reach. But we're not going back!"
"Oh, is the training too hard for the little wannabe heroes?" Grifter asked jumping down. "What, you think you wake up one day and know how to use your powers to their full extent?! Come on, Longshadow there doesn't even know how he made that form!"
"You think the Justice League automatically knew how to fight or use their powers? Batman spent almost 10 years on just martial arts training! And that's not counting on how to use his gear and detective skills. Superman almost killed his whole high school by just finding out about his heat vision! So how about you all have some guts and work hard to learn your powers?!"
"You don't get it!" Tye yelled as Blue came up, and had his armor go back into the Scarab.
"No Tye, I do."
"Jaime?" Tye asked as the others looked on in shock. "How-!"
"It's a long story." Jaime said before he shows them the Scarab, and explains that the Reach created it to give him powers and control him.
"Fine. You're one of us, except you're flying around free while we're prisoners." Virgil admits as Grifter sighs.
"So, you go out here where the Reach could recapture you? They could have bugs around all bus and train stations looking for you, or more runaways."
"We'll go to my parents house!" Virgil says getting Grifter to look at him.
"Kage is giving them a house here while you're training in your powers, plus you'd put them in danger because the Reach will take them to get to you, or kill them because they couldn't retake you as a warning to others!"
"Tahsukete kureru no? (Will you help us?)" Asami asked looking at the two heroes.
"Hai. (Yes.) We'll help you." Blue said getting Grifter to sigh.
"Dude, you speak Japanese?" Tye asked looking at his friend and Asami.
"A little, Kage is from the Japan of his universe so he uses it and the Scarab translated for me as well. OK, new plan: We've got this new buddy, Green Beetle can help us. He's not that far from here."
S.T.A.R. Laboratory May 13, 21:55 MDT.
Eduardo Sr. was arguing with Dr. Wilcox about coming back before the wall exploded.
BOOM!
"Greetings, meatbags!"
They looked to see Red Volcano come through the hole before bringing up spikes to destroy the Zeta-Tunnel.
"Where's A.M.A.Z.O.?" He asked pulling Eduardo up.
The Runaway's May 13 22:06 MDT.
Ring-Ring!
"Kage, qué pasa? (What's up?)" Jaime asked as he answered his phone as he and Grifter walked down the road with the Runaways without Sphere.
"Your radio's down!"
"We're incognito… Well, as much as we can be."
"Well armor up! The robot, Red Volcano, has attacked S.T.A.R. Labs to steal A.M.A.Z.O. and you're the closest 'til I get there as Zeta-Tubes are down."
"But I'm working the runaway teens case."
"That can wait, you need to get to Red Volcano before he gets his hands on A.M.A.Z.O., Kage out."
Jaime sighed before turning to the others. "Minor setback."
"We know." Tye said before Virgil pointed at him.
"You volume's at max, we heard it all."
"Oh! Well, stay out of sight. We'll be right back." Jaime said as his armor came up and he flew off.
"Just so you know, Jaime will be acting strangely." Grifter aid as Sphere rolled over to him.
"How so?" Tye asked the masked future hero.
"He's undercover for us in the Reach now."
"What?!"
"Yeah, Green Beetle was immediately taken under control but the future Kage cleansed him of that just as he was about to do the same to the Bug. Now, both are pretending to be under Reach control. So just act normally if he has to act strange." Grifter explained before getting on the Super Cycle after Sphere transformed.
"And don't let anyone else know that you know that!"
As he left, Eduardo looked to the others. "My dad could be in trouble!"
"Dude, you hate your father."
"O-Only sometimes!" Eduardo said having Virgil raise his hand.
"It's cool. If it was my dad, nothing would keep me away. I'm with you."
"So you two want to go back to the place we just broke out of?!" Tye asked walking to the two. "Whatever, I'm in too. Sam?" He asked the Japanese girl who had her hands in her pockets.
"Nandaka yoku wakaranai kado, ja ishoni ikuwayo! (I have no idea what's going on, but I'll follow!)" She replied with a thumbs up.
Later, they went to S.T.A.R. Labs just as Blue Beetle and Grifter was thrown out of the ground by a large fist made from dirt with magma in it. Grifter turned and started firing at the hole just as the fist exploded.
Red Volcano ran out and raised his arms having lines form around the duo as they landed. Grifter rolled away as a hole formed under Blue Beetle who fell in. Red Volcano clapped his hands and had the hole close up.
"Go after the robot! Make sure no one else gets hurt!" Tye yelled running to where Blue was. As the others ran after the android, Tye knelt by the whole.
"You got this." Tye turned to see Kage appear behind him with Red Torpedo and Red Inferno before the two androids ran after their 'Little Brother'.
"Just focus, Tye."
Tye took several deep breaths as his projection came back as he close his eyes and then slammed the hands in the ground.
Inside with the others, Eduardo appeared with his father in a hall.
"You teleported (groan) more than yourself!" Eduardo Sr. said grunting.
"I was (groan) motivated."
"We're running defense." Virgil said as Red Volcano walked out of the vault in front of them.
"Oh, are you now?"
Asami clapped her hands before projecting herself forward. And had nothing happen when she hit the android.
"I think it's up to us to punish our little brother!" A wave of water from busted pipes hit Red Volcano as Torpedo came out of the water.
"Yes, now go!" Inferno yelled bringing up her hands having fire cover the door just as Tye ripped the roof off.
Tye's form grabbed the android and threw him into the air as Blue Beetle flew up and shot him with his plasma cannon. Only to have nothing happen.
"Plasma? Really? You don't grasp who you're dealing with! The name is Red Volcano!" He yelled having lava form around him as spikes came up, stabbing Tye in his form's chest.
Tye groaned before his form bubbled away as Virgil, flying on a manhole cover grabbed him.
Blue dashed to Volcano, only for a ball of lava to hit him. The lava came off of the beetle themed hero who had his sonic cannon on.
"You don't seem to grasp who you're dealing with!" Blue yelled shooting sonic blasts at the android as Red Torpedo hit him with water as well.
Blue Beetle then turned the voltage up as Volcano slowly walked towards him, hitting his siblings with lava, having a leg on each glow before the lava harden around them.
"Guys, can you get the people out of the building?!" Naruto asked jumping down noticing the building was starting to crumble. "Don't just stand there, go!" Naruto created clones to help the Runaways get the people out.
"Doitashimashite. Achotto, Suimasen! (You're welcome. Now, please, excuse me!)"
Naruto looked to see Eduardo Sr. as Asami about his son.
"Asami-san, he asked if Ed is okay." Naruto said in Japanese as he stopped by her.
"He's fine, Ed, he's helping get others out." Naruto said before turning to Asami. "You did great, now go find anyone else that may need help!" He said as she clapped her hands and glowed, getting his eyes to widen.
"Wow, she can use chakra." Kurama said as Naruto saw her speed off by expelling her chakra. (1.)
As they got the last guard out, Red Volcano crashed through the building before creating large hands that grabbed everyone.
Only to go flying as Blue Beetle flew up and hit him with his chest cannon. The Runaways used their powers to break their restraints as Blue flew after Volcano.
BOOM!
Who exploded after Blue drilled a hole in his chest and used his sonic cannon on it.
Naruto ran to Blue and roughly pulled him around. "Not cool, Blue! You try that shit again, and you're off the Team, and I'll pull that Scarab off of you and toss it into the Sun!" Naruto then push past Blue as reporters came up to surprised beetle-themed hero.
"Little rough weren't you?" Grifter asked catching up to Naruto.
"I want the Reach to know what will happen if they put innocents in harm's way while trying to make Blue look like a hero. And unlike the others I don't care what the world will think of me if the Reach does cross me." He said before walking up to Asami.
"Asami-san, if you want to continue this, or need training, go to a James Gordon in Gotham to get a hold of me." He said getting her to nod.
"Uh, sure. Arigato (Thanks)." She replied before stepping back
"You guys go hide. The Reach now know you're here at S.T.A.R. Labs. There's a warehouse in town that I've rented so you can hide there until we get rid of the Reach." Naruto said as Red Inferno and Red Torpedo walked up as Naruto repeated himself in Japanese.
He looked to see Blue Beetle answer the reporter's questions before disappearing in a cloud of leaves with the others as the Runaways ran into the woods.
Taos Pueblo May 14, 13:05 MDT.
"I was still huffing bad and I overplayed my hand."
On a rooftop, Blue Beetle is talking to Green Beetle. "I should have called you to collect the Runaways as soon as we found them."
"It was the sensible tactic to earn their trust. We'll find them again." Green Beetle tells him.
"Red Volcano attacking didn't help." Blue relies leaning on the edge.
"I disagree. It helped to establish your credentials as a true hero." Green Beetle said crossing his arms.
"Which is equally as important."
The two turned to see Black Beetle walk up to them.
"As Green rebooted your Scarab to control the 'meat' inside..."
"So you must control the natives of this world. Enlarging the Reach's foothold in the Galaxy." Green finished as Black put his hands on their shoulders.
"Don't worry my brothers, soon you will have them eating out of your hands."
Taos May 14 13:30 MDT.
"Should we go to the warehouse now?" Ed asked as the Runaways stood in the destroyed bus station.
"Yeah, I just wanted to get my bag." Virgil replied before a white limo stopped by them.
Mercy walked out of the driver's side before opening the back door to reveal Lex who got out.
"You're Lex Luthor." Virgil said as Lex stopped by them.
"In the flesh. And you're Virgil Hawkins, Asami Koizumi, Eduardo Dorado Jr., and Tye Longshadow." Lex replied getting Tye to raise an eyebrow.
"You know us?" He asked getting Lex to chuckle.
"My boy, I've been watching over all of you for weeks. Even arranged the power outage that facilitated your escape from S.T.A.R. Labs, not to mention tip the press which allowed you to escape Blue Beetle."
"Escape?" Virgil asked playing his part.
"Blue Beetle, as you may have guessed, has become an agent of the Reach."
"But you work with the Reach. You're even making the Reach drink." Eduardo said crossing his arms.
"True. But, I've been suspecting they've been using me for their own ends. I'm sure you know what that feels like? Only I have the resources to protect you." Lex said getting Virgil to narrow his eyes.
"Heard that one before. What do you want?"
"To empower you. Not with your meta-powers. You're doing just fine on that front. But instead, I want to help you four take control of your own destinies." Lex explained as he walked to Asami who was looking down, kicking the dirt.
"Kimi no chikara ni, naritainda. (I want to be a power behind you.)" He said to her. She glanced inside before looking to him.
"I need to use the restroom, excuse me." She left as Lex translated what she said.
Once inside the restroom, she closed the door and turned to see Kage.
"I'm glad you came here, Asami-san. Lex is working with the group that brought the Reach here." He explained, causing her eyes to widen.
"Then why does he want to help us get back at them?" She asked getting Naruto to shrug.
"I don't know. But..." Naruto trailed off picking up a headband with a black cloth with a metal plate on it with his whirlpool logo etched in the middle.
"I'm hoping you can find out for me… Genin."
"A Hitai-ate? (Forehead Protector)?" She asked looking at the headband.
"Hai (Yes). I'd like you to be my protégé." Naruto replied as she took the headband.
"I'll spy on Lex, only because I don't trust him. But I don't know-!" Asami was interrupted by Naruto.
"You don't need to answer now. Take your time. But keep the Hitai-ate (Forehead Protector) as a gift from me." Naruto said before disappearing.
Gotham; Naruto's Penthouse May 14 16:45 EDT.
Naruto appeared in his room before changing into jeans and a plain white T-shirt before looking at his and Diana's wedding photo.
"I hope you're alright, Diana." Naruto said before opening the door, and saw Crystal standing in front of his door. "What? You here to yell at me, too?"
"Nope, we decided on waiting until Diana gets back. Talia won't say anything. Said she would be a hypocrite if she kept you from doing this since you never tried to get her out of the Assassins."
"Good. It'll give everyone time to cool off so no one will try to bite anyone's head off." Naruto replied before hugging her.
To Be Continued.
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