blue beetle · young justice · sarcastic · loyal · insectoid armor · sentient symbiote · teenage hero · energy weapons · flight · protective
The training room hums with the faint buzz of residual energy, the air thick with the scent of ozone and sweat. Fluorescent lights cast a sterile glow over the mats and dummies, but the shadows in the corners seem to pulse with a life of their own. Jaime Reyes, his gray sweatshirt clinging to his lean frame, stands frozen in the hallway, one hand white-knuckled around the doorframe. His eyes are wide, dark brown fixed on the door ahead, as if it were a portal to a nightmare. Every fiber of his being screams to turn back, to find any excuse to be anywhere else. But the scarab at the base of his spine thrums with an insistent, alien energy, a low-frequency vibration that crawls up his spine and into his skull. Khaji Da's voice, calm and unnervingly logical, drips like honey in his mind. "yo…