It's not easy being Jaime Reyes. He has to deal with high school, family and all the drama that comes with being a teenager. Also, he's linked to a powerful scarab created by an alien race known as the Reach who seek to subjugate planets – or annihilate them. It's up to one teen hero to turn this instrument of destruction into a force for good.
An alien world in space sector 2 is under attack by Khaji-Kai, a scarab originating from the Reach, along with its presumably unwilling, native host. Once the scarab's vessel wakes, he is offered the job of subduing more worlds by the Reach Commander Drone Lu-Kreeza. At the same time, another scarab is shown flying through space, barely escaping a Green Lantern. The scarab drops into sub-space and crashes on Earth, next to what appears to be an ancient Mesoamerican pyramid.
In the present time, El Paso, Texas teenager Jaime Reyes is invited, along with high school dropout Paco, to their friend Brenda Del Vecchio's birthday party. It's explained that Brenda's 'Tía Amparo' Cardenas, who hosts the party, will not let her security guards allow anyone in without an official invite. When asked by Jaime, Brenda claims to not know why her aunt is so strict about the security, and she cites her father's sentiment that it's rude to discuss money, especially Amparo's.
Jaime's parents, however, forbid him from attending Brenda's party. The reason they offer is that the 'Casa Cardenas' is a threat to Jaime's safety, and that they'd rather have him hate the two of them rather than allowing him there. Jaime tells them that it looks like they'll get their wish. However, he sneaks out, with Paco driving him to Casa Cardenas. Their trip is cut short when they accidentally get in the middle of a fight between two groups of superhumans, both groups' objective being a backpack containing the 'Blue Beetle'. One of the aforementioned groups had been tasked specifically by Tía Amparo (a.k.a. La Dama) to retrieve the item, which she had apparently worked hard for to get to El Paso. As the backpack gets into the car, and one of the superhumans expresses intent to kill Jaime and Paco, Jaime grabs the bag and tries to run away. Brutale's attempt to kill Jaime by throwing a knife into his spine backfires, as this seems to cause the scarab in the backpack to fuse with Jaime. A blue and black alien armor covers Jaime's body as he exclaims the name of the scarab, "KHAJI-DA".
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